Among the halcyon reckless and scrappy abandon of counter-rhythmic polyphonic squeals, Sophie’s voice is a sugar bowl of sarcasm. From the freshly chewed and masticated mundane-made-wry of ‘Can I Pet That Dog’ (“I’m on my knees for your Pekingese / Let me say hi to your brichon frisé / Introduce me to your cockapoo…”), to the semisweet glitterspit of ‘Rescusci Annie’; a protopunk successor to the suburbanite boredoms writ large in ‘Echo Beach’ or ‘I Want To Break Free’, every word and every line is skin tight and strung as dangerously taut as piano wire. Just like every other noise, squeak and feature of the album, there is no fat to trim. Not an ounce.
Things get close to cute petulance and college frat-brat when we get to ‘Bank Holiday’ and ‘Hi-Vis’, as if lollipop 60’s gets a Cherry Red makeover at the counter of the synth-shop of horrors. Cue the Casios and the bubble-away synthlines. Cue some of the album’s best idiosyncrasies. Yet through all the noise and the fantastic intangibles, this remains a distinctly British affair. Our eccentricities and bugbears are displayed in sprayed dayglo, from pub snacks to church fates, roundabouts, one way systems, and bank holiday sanctioned weekend escapism. With all these sly winks and nods (and her Old Man’s not a dustman) we can summon up the romance of a dusted builder’s backside cleavage gleaming in the English damp and drizzle. Chip wrappers line the pavements on a dismal Sunday at the beach, and all eight minutes of these morsels are delightful.
Wrapped around, cutting through, and over and under these images is a quartet of art punk and squalor that thrashes gleefully in tough-jawed distortions. Always loud, always spacious, always clattering, there’s at least 15 good and better-than-good songs packed into each of these one and two minute odysseys. Sonic scrapbooks, audio montage, bedroom cuttings of riot girl and post-punk in all of their old and new iterations; this is the sound of black and white photocopied fanzines with frayed edges and still-hanging staples.
No Peeling’s ‘No Peeling’ is the most appealing reason to flip the same vinyl 10 times in succession. The release date for this debut album is September 5th, on download and vinyl from BandCamp.
Rats on the Run 