Tag: Art Punk

HEAD NOISE – Album Review: “Twisted Histories”

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews5 Comments

One of the more unusual and zany acts I’ve gotten to know through blogging about music is South Wales-based electro/art punk band Head Noise, who describe themselves as “purveyors of post-apocalyptic synthpop, spitting out angsty garbage about junk culture, broken technology and modern art!” Comprised of the insanely creative Mitchell Tennant (primitive keyboards & shouting), Wayne Bassett (guitar & synths), Jordan Brill (more guitar & synths), and Andrew Topper Walsh (drums & percussion), their delightfully quirky brand of oddball synth punk sounds like what you’d expect from the love child of Devo, The Vapors and Dr. Demento, with Weird Al Yankovic as creative advisor. On the strength of their music, as well as their wildly entertaining live shows, complete with colorful costumes and props, they’ve amassed quite a loyal following throughout Wales and Southwest England.

They’ve released a fair amount of music since 2018, starting with their debut EP Microwave, quickly followed by a second EP Special Effects Improves the Defects. A year later, they dropped their first full-length Über​-​Fantastique, which they followed in 2021 with the EP Consequential Quasars! (which I reviewed) as well as a Christmas EP Gristled Toes & Whine, featuring such gems as “I Wanna Eat Yule Log” and “Brussel Spout Ketchup”. 2022 saw the release of their brilliant EP SCRAM (which I also reviewed), followed in 2023 with their mini-LP Metric Squid. Now they’re back with their second album Twisted Histories, a brilliant and often hilarious concept work “about obscenely warped moments from the past, as well as the terrifying dystopian future that awaits us, all mangled together into a time contorting mess!“

The album kicks off with “Primordial Soup“, which also just so happens to be the name of the band’s own signature artisinal hot sauce (which you can buy here). To a driving techno synth groove overlain with jagged riffs, thumping drums and spacey sci-fi flourishes, Tennant croons the not so savory lyrics about the origin of man: “Enamored by biological waste and mixed together into a soluble paste. A beak, and fins, and blood and pus, that is the general consensus. Primordial soup, makes me want to puke“, accompanied by a chorus of impish vocals.

“Sheer Buccaneer!” is a fun, synth-fueled nod to the seafaring pirates who explored and plundered their way around the world as they sailed the seven seas. And the delightful “Doin’ Science” continues on the theme first introduced 42 years ago by Thomas Dolby on his 1982 new wave classic “She Blinded Me With Science”. Head Noise name checks many of the groundbreaking pioneers in science and technology, including Einstein, Copernicus, Edison and Tesla. The wonderful video, filmed by Rosalys Anthony and Clint Thomas, directed by band member Wayne Bassett, and edited by Jordan Brill, features the guys at their zany best, making mischief in the laboratory.

The musical mayhem continues with “Tojo Head Slap“, a riotous punk romp about giving the former Japanese ruler his well-deserved comeuppance, followed by the Devo-esque “Joust! Joust! Joust!“, a frantic new wave ditty exploring the highs and lows of the medieval sport. I love the tribal drumbeats at the beginning, and what sounds like a toy piano played throughout the track. Tennant’s animated vocals sound rather diabolical as he sings “Let’s descend into the tournament for a good old round of horseplay“. And on “Mesopotamiamania“, with its wonderful bassline, he warns “In Mesopotamiamania they’ll cut off your hands. If you don’t play chess the right way, you’ll never really understand.”

One of the standouts on Twisted Histories is “L.H.O.O.Q.“, a celebration of French Dada artist Marcel Duchamp’s “ready-made” piece L.H.O.O.Q., which was a cheap postcard reproduction of Leonardo da Vinci’s early 16th-century painting Mona Lisa, onto which Duchamp drew a moustache and beard in pencil. The piece’s title is a gramogram, with the letters pronounced in French sounding like “Elle a chaud au cul”, which Duchamp loosely translated as “there is fire down below.” (Wikipedia) Musically, the song has a sophisticated and quite melodic synthpop vibe, highlighted by sparkling keyboards and an enchanting theremin.

Another favorite of mine is “Taft in the Bath“, a humorous take on the myth about American President Howard Taft becoming stuck in the White House bath tub. The myth was started when Ike Hoover, the White House’s chief usher during Taft’s presidency, mentioned it in his 1934 memoir. According to Snopes, historians have determined there’s no truth to the story, as Taft, who weighted more than 300 pounds during his presidency, had a custom-made tub installed. The lyrics are both clever and hilarious, delivered in Tennant’s signature quirky vocal style: “Without hesitancy through his presidency, William Howard Taft topped the scales eating possum and quails, in desperate need of a bath. / It’s a rumour. It’s not true. But porcelain when it meets the skin, is like a mega-molten superglue. Stuck in the tub. Another bathroom mishap.”

Head Noise continue their sonic rampage through history with the wonderful “Napoleon Blown-Apart!“, “Habsburg Gobstopper” and “History of the Future“, a lively new wave-fueled look at what the future holds, including flying cars, vacations on Mars and dinner on a microchip, none of which we’ll be able to afford. “Time Mash” closes the album on a glorious anthemic note, with the guys improbably juxtaposing people and things from vastly different time periods to clever effect: “Astronauts riding dinosaurs whizzing past the floating wreck of a mechanized Victorian town that screams of biotech. Henry VIII is shaking hands with a very stone-faced Ronald Reagan.”

One of the many striking aspects of both this album and the band itself is the fact that, not only are the guys incredibly imaginative, creative and funny, they’re also outstanding musicians. It’s also clear they had lots of fun recording this marvelous album, and I guarantee those of you with an appreciation for the wild and wacky will have a lot of fun listening to it! Head Noise will be launching Twisted Histories at a show in Cardiff on Thursday, May 30th. Details below:

The striking and colorful artwork for the album cover was created by MEATBELCH (aka Zach Williams).

Head Noise Social Media: Facebook / X / Instagram
Find their music on Bandcamp / Spotify / Apple Music / Amazon / YouTube

HEAD NOISE – EP Review: “SCRAM”

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews8 Comments

South Wales-based electro/art punk band Head Noise, self-described purveyors of post-apocalyptic synthpop, are one of the more unusual acts I follow. Comprised of Mitch Tennant (primitive keyboards & shouting), Wayne Bassett (guitar & synths), Jordan Brill (more guitar & synths), and Andrew Topper Walsh (drums & percussion on some tracks), their unconventionally quirky music sounds like it could have been created by the love child of Devo, The Vapors and Dr. Demento. I’ve previously featured them twice on this blog, most recently last May when I reviewed their delightful EP CONSEQUENTIAL QUASARS! Now the guys are back with a terrific new EP SCRAM, which appropriately dropped on April Fool’s Day. The EP has been released by independent Welsh label Dirty Carrot Records. 

Photo of Mitch Tennant courtesy of Elis Widgery Media

For their latest effort, they’ve ditched the guitars and, inspired by music from early iterations of The Human League, Depeche Mode and (of course) Devo, they’ve decided to go fully electronic. While still awash with their signature zany screwball flair for the absurd, exemplified by songs about cataclysmic death-derbies (“Screwball Scramble”), unfinished David Lynch movies (“Ronnie Rocket!”), and mangling the English language (“Alliteration, Again”), SCRAM also explores darker topics like hidden surveillance (“Candid Camera”) and nuclear evacuation (“Miracle Mile”).

Opening track “Screwball Scramble” is a fun listen, with throbbing spacey synths and quirky baby-like vocal flourishes, in sharp contrast with it’s decidedly bleak subject matter: “They drop me into this barren place, a wasted space for an extinction race. A four wheel powerhouse of pain where chunks of flesh fall down the drain. Terminate, to seal our fate with blisters coming from the throwing flames.” “Candid Camera” has a funky techno vibe, with a strong, catchy beat overlain with more of those wonderfully spacey, sci-fi synths. In an altered voice at times sounding almost diabolical, Tennant sings “Smile, cuz you’re on candid camera. Yessir!“

On “Ronnie Rocket!“, Head Noise employ a hypnotic EDM beat and swirling sci-fi industrial synths to create a futuristic soundscape in a nod to David Lynch’s film Dune, but the song’s more generally about a film Lynch never made. Tennant said it’s “a mad mash up of Salvador Dali, Monty Python and the Looney Tunes.” An electronically altered voice sounding like Stephen Hawking says “The concept of absurdity is something I’m attracted to” – which could well be the definitive descriptor for Head Noise – followed by Tennant’s more ‘normal’ voice repeating the lines “Let’s Lynch again. We are the saboteurs.” “Alliteration, Again” is a silly and lighthearted new wave song with strong Devo influences, replete with a bouncy pogo-like beat and colorful psychedelic synths.

Far and away the best track on the EP is “Miracle Mile“, with it’s stunning Depeche Mode-esque sound. Running 6:20 in length, the song is magnificent, with a complex and lush mix of sparkling and haunting synths layered over a hypnotic pulsating dance groove. Tennant’s vocals sound more pure here, revealing a beautiful voice that’s often hidden beneath the quirky Dr. Demento-like vocals so prevalent on many of their songs. Still, in a somewhat electronically-altered voice that could be his or someone else’s, we hear the chilling lyrics “You’ll find us fossilized, in a dilapidated museum, burning with a strange fire that you can never put out.”

Special shout outs for the song’s phenomenal sound go to guest musician Andrew Llewellyn for his gorgeous synth lines, and Liz Bassett (Wayne’s wife) for her captivating backing vocals, both of which greatly add to the song’s overall dreamy vibe. Being a sucker for heavily melodic music, I think “Miracle Mile” is a triumph, and the best song Head Noise has ever recorded.

SCRAM is another impressive work by this talented group of musicians, who never fail to amaze us with their boundless creativity, imagination and musicianship. The marvelous nuclear-inspired artwork for the EP was created by Anthony Price, who’s own music, under the moniker Dunkie, I’ve also written about previously.

Those of you in the UK can catch Head Noise at one of these upcoming shows:

Follow Head Noise: Facebook / Twitter/ Instagram
Stream their music: Spotify / Apple Music 
Purchase:  Bandcamp / Amazon

HEAD NOISE – EP Review: “CONSEQUENTIAL QUASARS!”

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews14 Comments

South Wales-based Head Noise are a self-described “Oddball DIY electro trash punk band, spitting out angsty garbage about junk culture, broken technology and modern art.” Listening to their zany music, which sounds like it could have been created by the love child of Devo, The Vapors and Dr. Demento, I’d say that’s a pretty spot-on assessment. I first featured them on this blog almost exactly one year ago, when I reviewed their single “200,000 Gallons of Oil”, one of the tracks from their trippy debut album Über-Fantastique. Now they’re back with a new five-track EP CONSEQUENTIAL QUASARS!, serving up 13 minutes of non-stop musical mayhem for our listening enjoyment. The EP was released on April 23rd via the independent Welsh label Dirty Carrot Records.

Since I last visited Head Noise, they’ve grown from a threesome to a quartet, with the addition of a drummer. They now consist of Mitch Tennant (primitive keyboards & shouting), Wayne Bassett (guitar & synths), Jordan Brill (more guitar & synths), and Andres “Topper the Pops” Walsh (drums & percussion). Bassett is also involved in other music projects, including a recent collaboration with Dunkie, who’s wonderful EP The Vanishing and Other Stories I reviewed in March. The songs on that EP could not be more different than those on CONSEQUENTIAL QUASARS!, which features their signature ambiguous and surreal lyrics, unorthodox instrumentals and quirky vocals. 

About the EP, the band explains “The idea for the EP was to have more of a rough and ready, raw and energised approach to the recording for bit more of an experimental flair. The inclusion of the electronic drums alongside some much thicker and fuzzy guitars have given the latest batch of songs a certain kick to them, which the band are finding quite exciting to play with. The band thinks that this will transpose to the live arena very well, so are very much looking forward to debuting these songs when live music makes its eventual comeback.”

The EP kicks off with “Alaska Later“, a delicious punk gem with a frantic, driving beat, chugging riffs and colorful, fun-house synths that create a deliriously upbeat vibe. I’m not sure what the song is about, but it seems to speak to the foolishness of poseurs, idiots and wannabes: “We’ve got this shared hatred of idiocy. But now they’ve missed the bus for a slice of new-age hogwash./ Imitator. Alaska Later. Instigator. Alaska Later.” But later in the song, Tennant sings “The only thrill that I consider that is greater than this, is a smaller heating bill, and a bathroom that doesn’t smell like piss“, so it’s anyone’s guess. Then, in his twisted Dr. Demento voice, he chants “Liquidator, see you later. No you won’t. Dead.”

The wild and crazy vibes continue with “Cubist Ballet“, a frenetic punk ode to the early 20th century cubism art movement that shook the art world. Like all ground-breaking trends, it was met with much derision, expressed in the lyrics “But then they booed and hissed like proto-anarchists. Art is subjective. Then I have something to say. No matter the outcome from those zany days. The collaboration was wild and abhorred. So I think innovation deserves an award.” Things turn a bit more gothic on “Drift“, with a beat that reminds me somewhat of The Cure’s “Lovesong”. I really like the spooky, almost psychedelic synths, aggressive drumbeats and and mix of jangly and gnarly guitars. Tennant’s vocals sound more conventional here, though still delivered with the cheeky playfulness we’ve come to love and expect.

The trippy “Queztalcoatl’s Axolotl” has a bouncy retro 80s punk/new wave vibe, and rather nonsensical lyrics alluding to Greek and Aztec statues and enjoying the good life: “Like I tried to convey, I lust to compile with an Aztec flavor, and a salamander smile. You see my garden lacks a prophetic shrine, a kind of je ne sais quoi. Behind the concrete of hidden landmines, we’ll be sharing beluga caviar.” Whatever it’s meaning, it’s a fun tune.

“Tracey Emin” is the most melodic of the five tracks, with a terrific guitar-driven new wave groove. And like many of their songs, it’s features an abundance of the band’s signature zany psychedelic synths, stellar guitar work and strong, thumping rhythms. The lyrics speak of the English artist Tracey Emin, specifically her 1997 work Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995, a tent appliquéd with the names of everyone she’d ever shared a bed with, including family members, friends, drinking partners and lovers: “Did you only mean to shock? Tracey Emin! Opening Pandora’s lock, and then throw away the key. Bringing you closer to me. Would you ever be content, hiding your life in a tent? Showing the state of your bed. Do you ever feel exposed…”

CONSEQUENTIAL QUASARS! is a thoroughly delightful little EP, and another fine release by this highly creative and eccentric group of guys. If you enjoy quirky, out of the ordinary music and vocals, you will like this record.

Follow Head Noise: Facebook / Twitter/ Instagram
Stream their music: Spotify / Apple Music / Soundcloud
Purchase:  Bandcamp / Amazon

HEAD NOISE – Single Review: “200,000 Gallons of Oil”

On By EclecticMusicLoverIn Reviews2 Comments

Head Noise

“Born from a love of inane junk culture and modern art. Here to disorientate, but also to captivate.” So say Welsh new wave/electro/art-punk band Head Noise about themselves and their deliriously fun retro-80s music that sounds like a crazy mash-up of Devo, Erasure and The B-52s. Formed in 2016 and based in Aberdare and Mountain Ash in southern Wales, Head Noise consists of Mitchell Tennant (Keytar/Vocals), Wayne Bassett (Guitar/Synth) and Jordan Brill (Guitar/Synth). The band started out as a duo act with Mitch and Wayne performing an original set of songs at an art exhibition, which according to their bio was described by an attendee as “David Lynch meets the Pet Shop Boys”. Jordan joined the band in 2017 as a second guitarist and synth player, giving their music a fuller sound.

In October 2017 they released their debut EP Special Effects Improves The Defects, which includes some hilariously-titled songs like “The Meat People” and “The Man With the Rubber Head”.  That was followed in August 2018 with the Microwave EP which, along with their humorous and entertaining live performances, catapulted them to notoriety (or infamy, depending on who you ask), throughout South Wales and Southwest England. They’ve also had the good fortune to open for bands like Wolf Alice, Public Service Broadcasting and Electric 6. This past November (2019), they dropped their debut album Über-Fantastique, an ambitious and marvelously trippy work featuring 14 tracks. The album release was accompanied by a limited run of CDs which quickly sold out.

Head Noise has just released one of the album tracks “200,000 Gallons of Oil” as a single, along with a wacky video that nicely showcases their zany, playful nature. (Be sure to check out their other imaginative and quirky videos on YouTube.) The song is catchy as hell, with a thumping synth bass-driven beat that immediately sets our toes tapping and head bopping. The guys layer a cool assortment of spacey, psychedelic synths to create a trippy vibe, then add crisp percussion and subtle, funky guitar notes to fill out the sound. I like how they top things off with some well-placed cowbell near the end for good measure.

The lyrics are rather silly and make no real sense to me, unless they’re singing about an unfortunate oil spill. But whatever their meaning, they’re perfectly suited to the lively music and band’s quirky persona. Mitch has a great singing voice, and delivers the lyrics with a cheeky sense of urgency:  “200,000 gallons of oil. Fill up the bath, you grotesque gargoyle. 200,000 gallons of oil. There is a potential cause for concern. Sit by the side of the road and get wet. Cut off the area with hazard tape. I’m just not ready to deal with it yet.”

Follow Head Noise: Facebook / Twitter/ Instagram
Stream their music: Spotify / Apple Music / Soundcloud
Purchase:  Bandcamp / Google Play / Amazon