If you are easily offended by swearing, then I’d advise you to avoid South East Londoners PLAY DEAD`s debut EP `Skint`. Its not that they are out to offend its just a product of modern life where these schoolmates grew up. The band, Joe Blair (guitar & vocals), Ollie Clarke (bass & backing vocals) and Louis Englefield (drums) formed in the school yards and teenage bedrooms of Herne Hill and deliver songs on boredom, youth apathy, messing about in the park and recreational drug use.
We kick off with `Hide` and it’s a tale of almost disconnection from life with lyrics proclaiming “Don`t wanna go, Don`t wanna stay, Don`t wanna live, don`t wanna die, then can`t be arsed…” fill in whatever you fancy and ending with “rather be in f**king bed”. This is all relayed to a not quite 1,2,3,4 count in but near enough with pounding drums throbbing bass and crashing guitar riffs and vocals almost spat out. Marvellous stuff.
I think we can all relate to `Skint` an account of being broke angrily expelled at a rapid pace over a blindingly blistering almost speed punk assault ending with the shrieked line of “I`m Skint and Fucked”.
Another short two-minute ironic slice of life follows with ‘Shaun’ a tribute to bassist Ollie’s nan’s boyfriend. “He’s a gentle giant with a short fuse who got arrested for punching a man off his bike in Brixton. He enjoys pies, pints and Coldplay” the band explains. It has some superb vocal interchanges between Joe, and Ollie I presume as they relate this tale while their hero`s name is chanted throughout, and an emergency siren wails in the background. I was reminded of some of the early wry catchy numbers that The Members produced.
The band have shared that ‘Brockwell Park’ is a homage to their childhood hangout. “It’s close to where we live, and we all used to go there in the summer and get up to all sorts of trouble. We like to think the song represents a summer’s day there – cheap beer, fags, narcotics and all”. There was a great interplay from all the guys in the band on this piece and the lyrics that included “we don`t need our livers, we don`t need our lungs, drinking fosters in the dark” is a delightful example of inner-city prose.
This sadly too short release closes with ‘The Drip’ and would seem to possibly relate to substance abuse. There`s what I think is a snippet of Arnold Schwarzenegger or a sound alike relating “i`m going to gobble you up” before we head into a wonderful cacophony of controlled musical aggression that had me thinking back to when I first heard `White Riot` by The Clash and that feeling of being quite stunned.
Alex Johnson of UK punk band Wonk Unit has closely shepherded this young band, and their producer, Pat Collier, formerly bassist of UK punk stalwarts, The Vibrators, engineered the EP together with Tom Berry and Lucy Wroe at Wardour Studios. This extended play was a real raw, anarchic, rapid, unrepentant, brash but not arrogant and honest slice of urban punk poetry. If I’d had the balls to form a band when I was young, this is the sort of band I’d love to have been in.
I am old enough to remember punk first time around, which gave us all a voice then and this offering would stand against any of the stuff that was around at that time.
The EP may be called `Skint` but I can assure you this submission is far from that.
Rating 9.5 /10
