Coming out of the excellent and ever-expanding South Wales scene, Spider Kitten
are a truly monstrous proposition, both in name and on record. While
the band has gone through several incarnations to reach this current
line-up, core member Chi Lameo has been a constant driving force behind
the band, his musical whims and diverse tastes resulting in albums of
drone, noise and – with Cougar Club - unadulterated sludge,
doom and sleaze. I won’t pretend to have heard all of Spider Kitten’s
stuff – indeed some discographies attest to there being nineteen Spider
Kitten releases in all (including live albums and splits with other
South Wales artists) – but more than a decade into their incredibly
diverse career, Spider Kitten have just released what may well be a
defining record in their catalogue.
Perhaps the main thing that will strike you as you listen to Cougar Club
is how solid the band sound and it’s fair to say that Spider Kitten
are solid from bottom to top. Heavy-hitting drummer Chris West provides
the essential backbone upon which Chi, Luke, Al, and Ptew generously
ladle fuzz, samples, effects and layered, melodic vocals to intoxicating
effect. The musical vision on Cougar Club is, presumably, to
level anything that get in Spider Kitten’s way because from the off it
feels like you’re riding on the back of the slowly-lumbering,
aforementioned monstrosity. Opening track “Twin Obscenities” sets the
foundation for the entire album musically; a chugging river-bed of lava,
bubbling bass and fuzzed-out guitars, and melodic singing – something
of a rarity among bands of a similar ilk these days. This formula spills
into the thunderous and freewheeling “Burdened” which is propelled
along (for the most part) by a single stream-rolling note, leaving much
of the melody to the bassline and frontman Chi.
“Dark World” takes elements of Electric Wizard’s murky doom, the
Melvins’ rhythmic chugging and NWOBHM dual-harmony soloing to create a
unique and unusual atmosphere that is true to the song’s title. There is
a moment of respite in the form on penultimate acoustic number “Time
Takes Its Toll” – a total gem of a song, equal parts dusty Americana,
blues and Kyuss’ “Space Cadet.” But final track, the epic “Cougar Club”,
may be the boldest song here as it essentially takes all of the
elements that make up the rest of the album and condenses it into one
massive bitter pill for you to swallow. Starting with a lumbering
(again, the only word for it) assault of fuzz bass and guitar, the song
crashes along at near-perfect head-nodding tempo as the whole band shout
vocals in threatening unison before opening up into a wide expanse of
extended bass solos, retro synthesiser jams and unadulterated Pink Floyd
prog. Seriously, they make this Cougar Club sound like the most fucking
epic thing ever.
I don’t know if there is just something in the water there, but many
of the alternative bands that come out of Wales seem to have an eclectic
ear for making music, finding ways to turn tried-and-tested formulas on
their heads by introducing quirky, unexpected elements to surprise
their audiences. Spider Kitten are no exception, and it’s fair to say
that their combination of sludge, doom, blues, drone, 80s space
electronica and prog make them one of the more interesting bands around
at the moment. They may have a bit of a revolving door policy which
makes it almost impossible to nail down a definitive line-up but Cougar Club
feels definitive because it’s an album with a cohesive musical vision,
played with conviction and recorded extremely well. It’s a quality album
that is absolutely full of personality, and in the current scene where
many new bands consider songwriting secondary to
riffing-for-riffing’s-sake, what more can you ask for?
[Originally published by the Sleeping Shaman, 03/04/2013]
http://www.thesleepingshaman.com/reviews/album-reviews/s/spider-kitten-cougar-club-cd-dd-2013/
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