The guy who runs micro-label Audio Antihero lives just up the road from me here in South East London - our shared love of local cafe Fig & Pistachio, good strong coffee and "expensive toast" notwithstanding, he has also turned me onto New York duo Frog. A simple name for a complex animal - as is the case here. Audio Antihero is releasing their eponymous EP and Kind Of Blah LP on vinyl, and they are well worth picking up. Case in point - 'Icabod Crane', the opener from Frog. It's a heady, verbose earworm, with Dan Bateman's vocals tightroping between the manic twang of Isaac Brock and the weed-ridden whimsy of Wayne Coyne, and a glockenspiel chiming surreptitiously in the background as the strumming guitar devolves into a sonic unravelling. The whole mini-album is as breathtakingly manic and brilliant as this opening gambit, and while in my opinion Kind Of Blah seems a little more reined in, it is no less enthralling, especially in 'Fucking' and 'King Kong'. The more I listen to these guys, the more I am blown away - I realise this review doesn't do these releases anywhere near enough justice, so just buy the fucking things already. Frog are rumoured to be playing in London in January next year - stay posted!
No comments:
Post a Comment