Flats – Better Living

In fact, on reflection, it’s a hell of a record. Give it some time & you’ll realise it’s pretty special.

In fact, on reflection, it’s a hell of a record. Give it some time & you’ll realise it’s pretty special.

 

One Little Indian http://www.sweatshoprecords.co.uk http://www.flatsofcourse.co.uk http://www.konkurrent.nl

 

Lordy this record is some assault and no mistake, from first to last. Foxtrot is like some of the more sluggish Colorado punk on the Local Anesthetic label, (I’m thinking stuff like Frantix’s My Dad’s a Fucking Alcoholic here) a slobbering giant of a track, making a hell of a racket and smashing everything in its way. It’s great and deceptive, as doesn’t hang around for too long before the blitzkrieg that is Tango belts us all into submission. The singer just screams blue murder and you know he means it.

The LP isn’t that complicated in its vision overall – the sound is thumping, crushing thrash-punk, doom, with an almost stoner vibe, (if that doesn’t sound too stupid) wedded to some incredibly committed, sarky vox – but frankly it doesn’t need to be. Somehow the bloody, single-minded nature of the assault of tracks like Country, Fast and Moonwalk means that the whole LP is elevated to another plane entirely. It’s intense, glistening, elemental stuff and the songs are presented like they’re the only message that matters. It’s this thing, the concentration, the indifference to anything else around that (perversely?) allows the listener the space to get somewhere else on the back of Better Living. Maybe there’s something of Crass too, the rasping vocals maybe, or the basic chops (Slam, Buzz), and I’m pretty sure they have the same sense of disgust about what’s going on.

In fact, on reflection, it’s a hell of a record. Give it some time & you’ll realise it’s pretty special.