London-based collective KEG have been making music together in various forms since 2009. They release their debut album `Fun`s Over` this month with a central theme throughout the album of vulnerability, and the importance of that in a good friendship.
We are introduced to the album via `Photo Day` which develops slowly with trombone, percussive cymbals, and keys initially before bass and guitars join with almost spoken word vocalisation and the track ambles along with a dreamy vibe. The last minute or so becomes much more robust with vocals that become more enraged before the number drifts off in a kind of hazy jazzy jam. We have first of three skits performed by friends of the band and burgeoning comedy stars, Florence Pick, Harrison Charles, and Theo Mason Wood. `Father Charles` is about a vicars’ adoption shared over a dreamy trombone soundscape.
`I’d Fly Tip for You` is apparently a declaration of undying love with its rhythmic angular guitar chords, an odd but enticing listen with wistful synth segments on route. We seem to have vocals that appear as if they are a stream of consciousness on `Strangers` which races along. Just after the midpoint it veers off slightly and becomes more surreal then kind of builds in anger and volume before ending quite abruptly.
`Plain Words` I read comes from a very real problem of laughing through pain, yearning for the feeling of true honest communication, and the problems which arise from not doing so. It rolls along quite melodically with vocals that do sound fairly perturbed and slightly distressed. A more personal trip into the catastrophizing effect grief can play on one’s mind when you lose someone very suddenly you start to think about all the terrible things that can happen every day follows with `St. Michael`. The number does kind of mirror the spiralling effect of letting a thought process or belief almost overwhelm you. Saint Michael is often depicted battling against evil and protecting humanity as to whether that has any bearing, who knows.
`Mr and Mrs Raleigh` is another routine about a couple meeting skiffle buskers in Norwich shared over an electronic landscape. The band have shared that on `Giving Up Fishing` we’re privy to a divorcee’s descent into crisis, reminding us that it could all crumble at any time. A tapping percussive beat laden offering that reminded me of Talking Heads for some reason with some delightful flowing brass and key tones on route.
The band have explained that in `Sate The Worm`, that “The worm is a parasitic life force which lives deep within one’s bonce. Sating it may result in revealing your deepest secrets to a colleague in a misjudged attempt at bonding. The memories which you must shout away in the street, those niggling feelings of insecurity, feed this lowly glugger.” It had an anger or contained fury about it at times but it is also one of those enticing numbers that you can`t help but being sucked into. The delightfully titled `Skybather` is much more of a reflective slow burn that seems to be obsessed with bathing and yearns for the love of a good tub.
`Ferryman` is a bit of a heads down no nonsense mindless boogie as it races along quite manically as if it`s life depended on it to finish before an inevitable deadline or time limit. But hearing the lyrics in the later part maybe it’s just a simple rant about missing a boat. The final parody comes with `Bobby` which is about a lone cigarette being the only thing on a band`s performance rider.
The album closes out with `Kayaking` which has a tapped percussive beat setting the pace and maybe reflects moving over fast water. The last ninety seconds kind of shimmers and possibly echoes the euphoria of a kayaking or canoeing experience possibly.
Albert Haddenham (vocals), Joel Whitaker (bass), Will Wiffen (keys, synth), Jules Gibbons (guitar), Charlie Keen (trombone), Jonny Pyke (drums) and Frank Lindsay (guitar) who make up KEG have released a joyous offering with their debut album `Fun`s Over` which is quirky but at the same time wonderfully endearing.
A kind of free jazz meets Gang of Four, Devo, Talking Heads, The Mekons and Wire for Generation Z and the funs only just beginning.
Rating 8.5/10
