Jaw-droppingly good three tracker from Cheshire noisemakers
When everyone lines up in true hipster fashion to talk about how “retro” this is, consider this: 1968 – and yes they sound like the record was released in that year, but far from exclusively – formed after two of their members began talking online.
What they conversed about you can only imagine, but you’d guess a mutual love of fuzzed up, gloriously uncomplicated rock n roll wasn’t far from the agenda.
Fast forward a couple of years and their first recorded output is ready. Now granted, there’s only three tracks here, but this debut doesn’t so much hint at promise as shout “look at us you bastards” from the rooftops.
Opener “Marauder” does exactly that, it builds slowly, then, when the groove hits it does so in a way that recalls Soundgarden in their meatier “Louder Than Love” or “Badmotorfinger” days. But it’s not done and has now truck with your expectations, so after a perfectly catchy chorus and a swagger that verges on the arrogant, it gets all psychedelic on us.
If that’s a brilliant beginning (it is) then it still ranks as the least brilliant thing here. That’s because the mighty slice of “Green Sails” is next and If a band that consisted of Led Zeppelin jamming with Black Sabbath existed it would drink a lot of beer and sound like this. “I lived and died in another dimension” hollers singer Jimi (who does recall Chris Cornell when he’s in full flight) and you can imagine that he probably did.
Which only leaves one more. But, blimey, what a one it is. “HMS Conan” (fittingly the EP is released on Conan frontman Jon Davis’ Black Bow label) is the best thing here by quite some distance. Effectively two songs, the first three minutes all pulsing urgency and ferocious lead breaks from Sam Orr and the feel isn’t too dissimilar from Groop Dogdrill back in the day, the next five is a sprawling epic of a thing that builds a Great Wall of sound and smashes it to pieces just for kicks.
It will be interesting to see what 1968 eventually become, because there’s too many ideas here to be slaves to the retro craze. Whatever they do evolve into, their debut foray hints it might be very special indeed.
Rating 9.5/10
1968 is released on January 15th 2016.
