About as subtle as a freefalling cement mixer taking out a greenhouse, SUMO’s debut single “Unseeded” is the kind of anti-apathy attack that’s difficult to ignore.
Based around ex-PAPA MANTRA mainstays DAN RAVEN (bass/ vocals) and guitarist/ vocalist MICK BUTLER, SUMO also feature drummer JASON COOLEY, a man whose skin-beating prowess sounds akin to several medium-sized gasometers collapsing. Very much a compliment in my book.
Actually, “Unseeded” is a fascinating, if occasionally nonplussing EP. “Unseeded” itself is the most obviously upfront, accessible (ahem) track, featuring a withering attack on the MTV generation, or, as they sing themselves: “Public executions don’t electrify me.” Quite.
Far better, though, are “Midget Sex Pills”, which – its’ genius title aside – sounds like an updated cousin of BLUR’s “Song 2” and rocks like a mental meerkat (another compliment) and “The Last Days Of Disco”; a vitriolic spoken word thang riding over a blown-out synth background that comes over like a cancer-ridden JARVIS COCKER gatecrashing the set of “TWIN TOWN.” Really.
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Of course, whether they can sustain the innovation to album length remains to be seen, but – once I’ve realigned my head – it’s plain that SUMO are at the very least an industrial-strength antidote to naff pop complacency and for that alone merit a 7.
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