TWAT UNION: Don’t Look It In The Eye EP
Out Now
Seen as certainly one of The Guardians One To Watch after one tune, TWAT UNION are about to move out on a UK tour on the eve of this EP’s launch. With that type of hype, can the band stay calm beneath strain? MK Bennett says very a lot so.
The inaugural Theatre Employees And Tv Union have convened its members on this auspicious day, comrades, to present us the bare-faced marvel of this assortment of quick, sharp shocks wrapped in a bow of indeterminate color.
Whether it is true {that a} band could be judged on a) The excellence of their drummer and b) Their tune titles, then TWAT UNION have completely nothing to fret about, the drumming is fabulous, and the titles are immaculate. Don’t Look It In The Eye, which probably pertains to hazardous chemical substances or sewage works, is superb, stuffed with wit and wrapped in sarcastic pleasure, lyrically and musically extra refined than the floor look may counsel.
Humour has been used to make critical factors in artwork, from Chaplin’s The Nice Dictator to Hannah Gadsby to Tig Notaro; distraction serves as a sugared tablet that in any other case could be tough to swallow. So, whereas present politics descends into the darkish ages of backwards Christianity and right-wing grifting, a defend of necessity is required for security and psychological well being causes, given the appropriate’s lack of ability to recognise satire and even pronounce’ twat’ appropriately. The masks of constructing a critical level usually solely requires a little bit important concept to unravel.
You may, as an example, simply get very educational in regards to the thought of producing a Little Pink Drill and its relation to societal expectations. The opening tune of the EP, whereby lyrically they study the metaphors round drilling and doing it your self, particularly after they ape dadrock godhead Van Halen with the drill-based guitar solo. The harmonised vocal intro, the very very first thing you hear, units out the stall of disguised brilliance with its technical mastery, briefly Oh Brother, The place Artwork Thou earlier than heading again up the King’s Highway, safely again within the arms of punk/Riot Grrrl. An ideal opener that units out their varied stalls, a staccato riff with the intro repeated because the refrain, a blast of feminist vitality, stuffed with hooks and unattainable to neglect.
Singer Of The Band shares a broad alignment with an identical and equally glorious tune by the Lambrini Women, which might make an distinctive tour, tells the acquainted story of the disrespect proven to feminine musicians, patronised and passive-aggressively shat on for daring to be greater than window dressing, 80 plus years after Sister Rosetta Tharpe stepped out on a stage and reinvented the guitar. X-Ray Spex and The Stooges come to thoughts right here, not least for the sudden however welcome and all too transient sax solo, an upbeat stomper with an on-fire rhythm part and one other magnificent riff.
Pink Flag acts because the centrepiece of the EP, a listing of acquainted complaints from males who both don’t know or care how their phrases have an effect on others, the standard poisonous narrative of demand and outdated assumption that bears no relation to cultural evolution; it weighs closely on the oppressed however not often the oppressors.
Take the superbly veiled however poignant.
“An ex threw a vase at my head, and I don’t know why
You want to management your feelings, I hate it while you cry
It makes me really feel dangerous..”
from Pink Flag, reflecting the deliberate, pointed, and marketed confusion surrounding fashionable masculinity, offered to boys as custom, ensuing within the patriarchal clusterfuck we discover ourselves in, with solely misogyny as the top outcome. On the upside, the tune is ideal, a rolling, discordant observe of mid-paced subtlety and deft touches, with specific point out for the keyboard hook that sits between the verses. Majestic and already a leap in writing phrases from simply two songs again, or not less than glorious sequencing. A pleasant ‘by the way in which’ to finish, too.
Hazard Boob is ostensibly a tune about workplace politics and energy dynamics, a wry take a look at objectification with the narrator in cost, three minutes of post-punk power-pop with one other nice keyboard efficiency, a melancholic melody that manages to soar and stay relatable concurrently.
The ultimate tune and unique first single, UTI, is a useful microcosm of the band’s world, darkly comedian and deeply common, a lyric of seething poetic annoyance and the overall lack of equity in sexual trade, it’s each significant and humorous, not the best lyrical line to stroll.
“You and I made a UTI
But it surely’s I that’s acquired it
And U really feel advantageous
Let’s dot the i’s
And cross the t’s
We had been an Us, however there isn’t any We..”
Matched with a feral and porcelain-based video, UTI is a summation and a name to arms, a contradiction as all bands have to be within the at present unsustainable musical enterprise mannequin, however every little thing about them, from the songs to the knowingly theatrical aesthetic shouts cease, look and pay attention, and observe the context, as a result of context exists past all different issues.
The longer term’s vibrant, the long run’s twat.
TWAT UNION’s Instagram | Fb | Web site
All phrases by MK Bennett, you will discover his creator’s archive right here plus his Twitter and Instagram
Additionally, hearken to Louder Than Struggle’s Iain Key chat to Twat Union on this present.
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