ZEN TEN RECORDS 23rd Feb 2018
Really basic garage rock. The drums are boxy and the riffs simple and repetitive. The whole thing sounds low budget. Punk so basic it could be from the Nuggets compilation, a Rough Trade punk single from 1977 or an inner city cellar somewhere near you.
These comments are meant as high praise. This is boiled down to the basics and carries a world of rock within it. Skill levels are actually higher than the surface reveals but no flash is displayed here and solos and arrangements are kept at a garage level. Songs run on themes like being a failure, self-hate, alienation, anger, frustration; all grist to the punk mill. Rock is an eternal now – there are new waves of development but any sound is within scope for re-creation and certain currents, like this, are ever-present, needing only people who really FEEL it, who burn with the filthy heart of rock and roll. Stand up, Table Scraps.
There are other sounds on the album and the Scraps do the Glam boogaloo fabulously well. Songs like Takin’ Out The Trash or More Than You Need Me swing like Marc Bolan riding Gary Glitter’s bloated pantomime jumpsuit. Rushed and threatening onslaught is another great sound – Frankenstein is a good example. Twisted Sixties sunshine pop glimmers darkly under the threatening guitars, angry vocals and the odd psych moment, like You Treat Me Like Shit’s swirling mad synth knob twiddling (gotta love that title). Three voices, a guitar, a bass and those boxy drums – simple.
Bristol’s Idles rate this band and to me that’s like touching the hem of God’s frock.