First Glances – New Year’s Evil
Tipped off to Exeter’s incendiary New Year’s Evil by a recent support slot for [sic]-endorsed noise merchants JEFF The Brotherhood , the band appear to be named after some 80s punk-slasher film that we don’t know. So, it’s kudos for the reference, but more for the tunes.
Quoting influential years instead of bands on their myspace page the band plump for 1984,1988 and 1991. Aptly then, their cut “Sonic Summer ‘91” is an early 90s, fuzz-heavy pummeller in the Skywave vein. Breaking from what can hardly be called tradition, their “Death Valley ‘69” does laud it up like a Tarantino soundtrack offcut – at least at the start – before being fed through a mangler marked “epic distortion”. Happily therefore it sounds nothing like the summer of ’69 – thank God.
Elsewhere, the band have been described as “ No Age covering The Wedding Present “, which isn’t far from the truth, despite their “Shining Path” being more abrasive than this otherwise spot-on précis affords. Good news then that the band also have a belter called “Shame” that is cut with knife-edge feedback and more loud-quiet-loud Sonic Youth structures than you can shake a stick at.
Most fortunately, it features on the band’s second release, a 7” split (which comes with download codes for two more) on the Art Is Hard label. The flip is occupied by The Black Tambourines who themselves hail from the rock ‘n’ roll hotbed of Falmouth. Exciting times for the South coast indeed. About bloody time I hear none of you say.