Ten songs, one intro, one outro, 26 minutes 36 seconds of racket, a great bit of graffhics packaging and a massive leap into their own dizzying stride. That's it.
Three-piece gang of mates CASTROVALVA have ripped off the Brew Records underachiever vest and knocked out a blistering and original album with shocking self confidence and really crafty implants from all over the shop.
My absolute favourite track is "Hooliganz R Us". Having done the warm up noise rock for the first half of the album (with some unexpectedly tasty fruit and nut scattered about) "Hooliganz R Us" blasts the senses with an abandoned flight of vernacular hip hop free jazz frenzy (Jonny Farrell of THESE MONSTERS stylishly abusing the sax) that has a touch of the BILLY JENKINS about it. Where JENKINS uses kids to inject humour and realism to his tracks this seem to be just the kids, taking over the whole show. It's perfect and it rocks like a bastard. "I robbed your brother's Pokemon and I robbed his pogs! Yeeeeh! Remember Pogs? Yeh. … back in my day when I was back in school we had MAAARBLES. You remember marbles? And the blaggin' and the stealin' Yeh!" It's demented and it sounds 100% authentic ASBO.
Throughout the album, for a noise three piece, the sound is super-busy and very inventive. There is guitar, bass (messy, messy, messy bass) and drum kit as the ramshackle Gang HQ for the pillaging raids to return to. Electronic squeals, rap and stolen noises of every kind are dragged in for ritual disembowelling. "Thuglife" is full of siren noises and racing beats. "We Don't Go To Ravenholm" has a springy, throbbing bass, with whispering, falsetto as well as thrashing. "Bison Scissor Kick" is a document of an overdriven bass speakers collapsing under the pressure. "Triceratops" has a B52's tail flicker, with Jurassic weight, and weapon points to spare.
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The outro is a fabulous Triumphal Gang Shout, with everything collapsing and the shed being kicked to oblivion. There is an imminent national tour. They will never be this fresh again. Eat 'em while they are shit hot.
www.pumppump.co.uk
www.brewrecords.net
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