Album Review: Slurring The Rhythms by Shut Up! Twist Again!

One of my favourite recent discoveries is Shut Up! Twist Again! The four piece are from Bayonne, France and play a great mix of indie punk and orgcore. In recent years we’ve discovered bands such as Quitters and Traverse who also play a similar sounding style, it seems as if there’s something in the French punks’ water that produces this awesome sound. In August Shut Up! Twist Again! released their third full length album and their first in five years. Titled Slurring The Rhythms, it was released by a whole host of labels including Guerilla Asso (France), Fond Of Life (Germany) and Paper + Plastick (USA). After listening to just a few seconds of the opening song I knew this was an album for me. 

The eight track album begins with Prison Notebook. If this is your first time listening to Shut Up! Twist Again!, like it was mine, then this is a perfect introduction of what to expect from the band. Mid-tempo punk rock which makes you want to sing along as loudly as you can with a your best pals and favourite strangers in a sweaty basement. As you might expect, there’s a huge amount of gang vocals throughout but there are also some quieter moments that allow the song to build towards the big moments. A solid opening track. Up next is Panegyric. Panegyric is a word that I’ve never heard before so I had to look up its meaning. It’s defined as “a public speech or published text in praise of someone or something”. The track is about remembering someone that you’ve lost and living your life the way that they told you to. The song starts out it a sombre mood but as it progresses it the sound grows and some sweet gang vocals arrive to really drive home the last couple of lines of the track – “I know I got more tears to share, I’m exactly what they told me to be.” The third track is Meritocracy. From the outset this song had me banging my head along to the pounding drumbeat. It’s one of the shortest on the album and wastes no time in getting to its big chorus. I really loved the punchy, stabby nature of the guitars and how they contrast brilliantly with the more melodic sounding vocals. Despite only being two minutes long, the band have squeezed a lot into the song.

Outsiders features Oskar from The Kendolls and Tear Them Down. Outsiders asks the question of what becomes of the people who don’t fit into society? This is one of my favourite songs on an album packed with fantastic songs. It takes you on a series of highs and lows, there’s softer moments, moments of real intensity and moments that will bring people together. Having Oskar’s more intense vocals on the track was a masterstroke of an idea. It adds such an interesting extra dimension to the song that really makes you pay attention. To Our Friends is a forty-five second instrumentation that leads into The Past Is Over. Listening digitally it’s a nice interlude that also serves as an introduction to the next song. I assume that on the vinyl version of Slurring The Rhythms it starts side B. The Past Is Over starts loudly as the drums go off like cannons and the guitars buzz along with them. As the intro progresses, the drums begin to mute and the guitars take over. Much like Outsiders, we’re taking on a series of highs and lows. Being a four minute long track this allowed for a seriously good instrumental moment to finish the song that allows the songs message to really sit with you when the track has finished. It was about how things can get better despite everything seeming as if it won’t.

The penultimate song is a cover of fellow French punks The Traders’ song Forgetting Our Duties. I have to admit I had never heard of The Traders before this so had to do my research – they sound awesome. Check them out. The Traders version is a very rough and ready style of punk rock. Shut Up! Twist Again! add their own distinct style and melodies to the track whilst not stepping far from the original song. The addition of some harmonies was a great touch. It’s a political song about how the people who are supposed to be in charge are not very good and not doing their job properly. Something that we in the UK can heavily relate to. The final song on Slurring The Rhythms is New Kind Of Liars. This is an epic way to finish the album. The song has a slow build to open with a chugging guitar alongside a more riff heavy one. It builds and builds until the vocals come in and have you gagging to sing along with them. After the first verse there is an extended instrumental section before the gang vocals come in for a huge chorus. This is another moment that has me longing to be in a sweaty basement shouting my lungs out. This transitions into a chanting section, another long instrumental before finishing the whole album with some more of those ace gang vocals.

Like I said at the beginning, Shut Up! Twist Again! are a recent discovery. I’ve been listening to Slurring The Rhythms a lot since discovering it and I can see it placing very highly on my albums of the year list in December. Do yourself a favour, check this out.

Stream and download Slurring The Rhythms on Bandcamp here.

Like Shut Up! Twist Again! on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.

Album Review: Steven Island by Maladroit

In February, French punk rockers Maladroit released their first new music in five years! The Parisian band have been a fixture in the European pop punk scene for years and I became a fan of theirs when I saw them play with Frenzal Rhomb, Direct Hit and Mike TV at The Underworld in Camden in 2014 (I think). What a line-up that was! Their newest release is an EP named Steven Island and it features four brand new songs based around four of Steven Spielberg’s most famous films – Jurassic Park, ET, Jaws and Indiana Jones. After being away for so long, this was the most fun way to come back.

Steven Island begins with Darwin's Got Our Back which is based around Jaws. This wasn't the fast paced and melodic pop punk song I expected to start the EP. Instead it's a stabby, stop-start type of song which has a bit of a darker tone than I usually expect to hear from Maladroit. That's not saying I didn't enjoy the song though. In fact, I thought it was a striking way to start Steven Island and it really made me take notice. Despite the structure of the song, it's still packed with memorable lines and hooks that will stick in your mind and have you singing along in no time. Up next is Raptor Lover (based around Jurassic Park). This song is far more what I was expecting from the EP. Fast, simple, catchy and lots of fun. The line "they say I'm a bad seed" is repeated a lot throughout the song so you'll have no excuse to not be singing along when you see them live. The song is from the point of view of the scientists who created the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park and how they say they're not bad people, they just wanted to see if it could be done.

The third song on Steven Island is titled Exploration Team (Indiana Jones). This is the most conventional pop punk tune on the EP. Think of bands like Teenage Bottlerocket and The Copyrights and you get the idea. Bringing the tempo up even higher than before adds an urgency to the track that I really loved. Lately I'm really enjoying all my music to have some urgency about it. That's not to say that melody is sacrificed on the song. On the song, Maladroit seem to have found the perfect blend of both urgency and melody. I dig it. Last up is Communication Fuck Up, based around ET. Communication Fuck Up mixes the stabby sound of Darwin's Got Our Back and the urgency of Exploration Team so you get the best of both sides of Maladroit's sound. Lyrically it follows a pretty simple structure. I love a simple song though, it connects with me quicker and keeps me entertained. I enjoyed the use of multiple vocalists on the track. Each vocalist bringing a different style helped add a truck load of energy to the track that gets you pumped up and leaves you wanting much more.

Maladroit have returned with a really fun EP which features four fantastic songs. I'm always impressed with how pop punk bands manage to create a variety of sounds. It's such a unique theme to base an EP around and the band have pulled it off superbly. Bravo Maladroit.

Stream and download Steven Island on Bandcamp here.

Like Maladroit on Facebook here.

This review was written by Colin Clark.

Album Review: L’ennui by Guerilla Poubelle (by Emma Prew)

I’m about to attempt to do something that I’ve never done before: review an album where I don’t understand any of the words, unless I use Google Translate, because I don’t speak any French beyond ‘bonjour’, ‘je m’appel Emma’, ‘merci’ and ‘au revior’. This is not something that I would dream of attempting, did I not already really like the band in question. I listened to said album on the day of its release and then immediately put it on again because I enjoyed it so much – all despite the language barrier. It also felt pretty appropriate to be listening to a French band on the day the UK left the EU. Fuck Brexit.

Guerilla Poubelle are a punk rock trio from Paris who have toured the world, including playing shows at The Fest, Pouzza Fest, Booze Cruise Festival and Manchester Punk Festival as well as France’s own This Is My Fest (which, I think I’m correct in saying, they have a hand in putting together each year). They are a super hard working band with strong DIY ethics – they even have their own label, Guerilla Asso. Their new album, L’ennui (which translates as ‘Boredom’ by the way, if you also do not speak French but were wondering), was released on the 31st January on said label. Oh, and the legends that are Red Scare Industries are putting it out too!

The fact that the album has 13 tracks in a 30 minute run time is a sign that this going to be relentlessly fast-paced. And this theory is proved correct with opening track Les frontières du présent which is loud and fast from the outset. Here Guerilla Poubelle deliver a rousing protest against the world’s borders. The vocals are distinctly gruff and the chorus is a wonderful gang affair – even if I can’t quite sing along myself, yet. Second song, La chute, slows things down a little with chugging guitar and bass parts to open the song. The chorus is a catchy one which works well with the bouncy melody. The pace returns for Qui perd perd which is not far off being a full-on hardcore anthem. I wouldn’t want to be near the pit for this song – because I’m small and would probably get crushed. It’s easy to feel the rage that the band express here through the intensity of their playing and the almost screamed vocals. Unsurprisingly, the song finishes in just over a minute.

Fourth track, Apocalypse 6:12, is probably the song that stood out to me the most on my first listen through, not least because of its dark title. It’s definitely not as ‘hardcore’ as the previous track, instead taking a more mid-tempo path. I really enjoyed the exchanging of vocals between different members of the band for the chorus, something that is mirrored between the bass and guitar melodies as well. The next track, La bataille de Paris, switches in pace throughout. This helps to keep the listener’s attention and keeps you guessing what will happen next. Entre Booba et Balkany is the longest song on L’ennui, at well over 3 minutes long, and it sees Guerilla Poubelle deliver something quite different to everything we’ve heard so far. The song has a slow and extended musical introduction which builds with intensity for half of its duration before bursting to life. The whole song showcases what brilliant musicians Guerilla Poubelle are.

The seventh and eighth tracks on the album, La casse du siècle and L'aigle et la foudre respectively, are both super melodic, mid-tempo tunes. There’s plenty more shout-along-able gang vocal moments, catchy riffs and even some whoa-ohs. I should note that I have used Google Translate and read all of the lyrics for this album, it’s pretty dark stuff but inspirational at the same time, it’s good that Guerilla Poubelle are able to write songs about such important political topics. The volume is amped up once more for Passer l'arme à droite and we have one of the catchiest choruses of the album – ‘Est-ce qu’on passera l’arme à droite ?’ / ‘Will we pass the weapon to the right?’. Catchy but hard-hitting, much like the music itself. Vampire is the name of the tenth song. Opening with a beefy bass line, shortly followed by a steady drumbeat and those gravelly vocals, it’s unusual that the guitar doesn’t come in until just before the chorus. When it does come in however, it sure packs a punch. 

La guerre des pauvres is another upbeat ambush of angry punk rock. The track hurtles along at a breakneck pace but towards the end of the song there’s a short breakdown section that allows the listener to take a breath as they nod along to the riffs on offer. At least until the the pace picks up again for the last leg. The penultimate song is titled L'argile. Opening with a heavily distorted bass line and pounding drums, L'argile is probably the slowest song on the album but what it lacks in speed it makes up for with fraught emotion. In less than 2 minutes, however, it’s all over and Guerilla Poubelle ramp things up for their final song, Mare Nostrum. Bringing the album full circle, Mare Nostrum takes on the subject of refugees and freedom of movement. Understandably, it’s another hard-hitting song both musically and lyrically – the chorus being ‘Victimes de survie et d’espoir, Au fond du plus grand cimetière d'Europe’ / ‘Victims of survival and hope, At the bottom of the largest cemetery in Europe’. With plenty of atmospheric building throughout the song, it certainly feels like a huge and poignant way to end the album. 

Even before I’d copy and pasted the lyrics from the band’s Bandcamp page into Google Translate, I knew that this was an angry, anti-fascist, pro-equality, political protest album. I’ve seen Guerilla Poubelle live and I know that’s what they’re about. I also don’t have to understand every single lyric to feel the passion and raw energy they put into their music. So, if you too do not speak French, please do not let that stop you from checking out L’ennui and Guerilla Poubelle because I think it’s brilliant.

You can stream and download L’ennui on Bandcamp here and like Guerilla Poubelle on Facebook here.

This review was written by Emma Prew.