Tuffers aside, our first signs of some naughtiness and joie de vivre come with Howl in the Typewriter’s Cheesebuger Eating American and the daft collage Chewed by Badgers.
Tuffers aside, our first signs of some naughtiness and joie de vivre come with Howl in the Typewriter’s Cheesebuger Eating American and the daft collage Chewed by Badgers.
Where to begin? Well this, the eleventh Godspunk compilation has UNIT’s eloquent and remarkably insightful ode to Middlesex and England’s Phil Tufnell, which is as good an excuse as any to buy this record. In fact we could stop the review there; such is the power of that image, but we won’t. Godspunk compilations always throw up things that just couldn’t be heard anywhere else. This is a stage for the forgotten, the unwashed, the bunker dwellers and the slightly deranged and as such Incendiary embraces it. No scrubbed up types here begging for your attention. If you don’t believe me listen to another of UNIT’s offerings on the LP, My Parents Are Dead But I Wish It Was Me Who Had Killed Them.
Howl in the Typewriter has a bunch of new tracks including the downbeat and somewhat psychedelic campfire ditty, 2012. As ever (with 2012 and When I Was a Little Boy) HITT sets a whole range of personal reminiscences and ruminations to tape. Balancing extreme navel gazing against intelligent arrangements doesn’t always work (and it can very easily fall into the musical bear trap known as “whacky”) but when it does it creates a message that you can’t really hear anywhere else.
This compilation seems a bit more laid back than previous, Laszlo Klempe’s Le Treizieme and Kunzysteem’s Brighter Than Light are maudlin and unobtrusive instrumentals and the Data’s Cat’s normally splurgy and organic soundscape is very well ordered. The Johnny Lieberbaum Pops Orchestra give us one of the straightest tracks ever on a Godspunk record (it is good, mind), and even Dim D3ciple seems that bit more spaced out than previous. Tuffers aside, our first signs of some naughtiness and joie de vivre come with Howl in the Typewriter’s Cheesebuger Eating American and the daft collage Chewed by Badgers. The dippy and cod-innocent brace from The Large Veiny Members and featuring Vag – namely Narwhal and Yeti hit the spot too. England’s Glory, UNIT’s The Chinese Boy and Nil By Nose’s Douchebag are all a bit of cheeky fun as well. Best is the ode to Beefheart in Nil by Nose’s So Long and Thanks for All The Masks.
Godspunk: daft as you can imagine but essential nonetheless.