The Newcastle quartet unleash an absolute beast of a debut album!
Is there something of a resurgence in quality garage rock happening in the North East of England? It doesn’t feel like that long ago that we discovered the joys of Onlooker, and now TV Death step up to the plate with ‘Neon Dreamland’. In truth, to label them as merely a garage rock group would be to do them a disservice; they also take influence from psychedelia, post-punk, and just about all things loud and feral. The end result makes for one hell of a debut album.
The band’s mission seems to be twofold; to get you dancing, and to give your eardrums a stern testing. The former, they achieve by crafting irresistible riffs and grooves; the guitar tone on the likes of ‘Plastic People’ and ‘New World Disorder’ is reminiscent of that of Tom Morello, and there’s also plenty of the kind of guitar abuse that would surely have the Rage Against The Machine six-stringer nodding in approval. As for the latter, trust us when we say that they’re masters of the kind of gloriously unhinged Stooges-esque racket that would surely get all but the hardiest of souls reaching for earplugs.
How could we forget the schizophrenic vocal stylings of frontman Jack Burlison? Whether opting for an almost spoken-word style delivery or howling like the truly deranged, he keeps us guessing at every turn – and it just adds to the appeal. Check him out singing over the ominous, sparse guitar intro to the title track; it’s one of the closest things they have to a ballad, but don’t be fooled by the funereal pace, because both he and it soon burst into life – and then some.
It’s all superb stuff, but they arguably save the best for last. The penultimate ‘Up The Hill From Paradise’ is seriously catchy with its dancefloor-friendly rhythms and melodic, widescreen chorus, and then ‘Hallowed Ground’ brings things to a suitably unsettling close, with Jack accompanied only by droning keyboards until those guitars absolutely CRASH in halfway through. You get the sense that this is a band that have long since realised they can do whatever they want, and do it well.
Having recently seen them live, we can assure you that they take no prisoners. In fact, they play with the kind of intensity that makes us hope the wider world takes notice soon, in case they spontaneously implode (or something like that). For now, ‘Neon Dreamland’ just gets better with every listen, and we urge you to wrap your ears around it as soon as possible.
‘Neon Dreamland’ is out now on Dogged Sound Records – order it HERE.
- Propaganda
- Plastic People
- Bad Thing
- Shangri-La
- New World Disorder
- Face Like Thunder
- Village Mentality
- Neon Dreamland
- Lease Of Life
- Crank Bugs
- Up The Hill From Paradise
- Hallowed Ground
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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