Crushed Beaks, crushed beaks… that’s a good name for a band. Matthew Poile (Guitar, Vocals) and Alex Morris (Drums) thought it up. And here they are with a new EP called Tropes which is to be released by the fledgling ASL Records vinyl or digital format on 16th September of this year. It comprises four songs: ‘Feelers’, ‘Tropes’, ‘Lies’ and ‘Day Residue’.
Each blazes away grandiosely with full rosy-cheeked production and distinctive vocal delivery. Couldn’t quite make out the lyrics, but that doesn’t seem so important – they sound happy and overflowing with sure-footed vitality. Riffs pour out of Poile’s ears all agreeably smothered in effects, just like Yuck and other 90s revivalists. Perhaps this is to be expected: it’s produced by Rory Atwell after all. He – once of Test Icicles – has his sonic stamp all over pieces from luminaries such as Palma Violets, Veronica Falls, S.C.U.M. (alas, now defunct), The Vaccines, Male Bonding and Yuck too. He brings a voluptuous health to any guitar music and Crushed Beaks are the latest beneficiaries.
‘Feelers’ is probably the most interesting track but all four fizzle’n’jangle with a pleasant immediacy. It’s easy listening: the mixing levels are just right and the melodies are satisfying and ‘convincing’ (I admit that is a weird way to describe a melody. Definition: a melody that progresses organically, that just feels… right and nourishing). The best thing about this’n though is the voice – it sounds remarkably similar to Lee Mavers, the hub of one album wonders The La’s. Tropes displays the vim and vigour emblematic of liberating pop music, brash yet uplifting. Burrow down too far into the root and branch significance behind each song and you might be disappointed though. These guys are just for fun – seek your intellectual nectar from elsewhere.
Barney Horner
