Strangely Addictive
Off key shrieks and jagged art rock hooks collide in an androgynous heap as The Victorian English Gentlemen's Club unleash their strangely appealing mix of angular art rock.
Stuttering hooks teasingly begin proceedings on TVGEC's debut album with 'The Tale of Hermit Mark' invitingly gaining your immediate attention. Adam Taylor's almost deadpan vocals screech and wail like as banshee whilst vocal howls intercept here and there; it shouldn't work but is bizarrely gripping and more importantly extremely catchy. Pulsating guitars mingle with a steady drum beat before vocals and guitars crash for a riotous finale, setting the tone for the rest of the album and insuring that TVGEC have firmly gained your full attention. From this point the Cardiff trio takes you on a journey of colliding male/female vocals that reach every vocal range known to man, mixing in the obligatory jangle of guitar hooks that simultaneously liven and grip all set around their tales of modern day life and the rigors it holds. An ominous bass line fuses with Taylor's dark uncommitted vocals on 'Dead Anyway' as he despondently sings of how the world will carry on when he's dead and gone. But fear not, TVEGC's life is not all bleak. 'My Son Spells Backwards' is a hyperactive melee of mixed gender vocals that pays homage to dyslexia complete with high pitched screams of "to school", whilst 'Ban The Gin' continues to show the humor and energy behind TVEGC. A rousing burst of energy, 'Ban The Gin' zooms past boasting a chorus that sounds like it has come straight out of a wild west saloon, picking up some yodels on the way.
TVEGC sound unlike any band touting their craft at the moment. Just as they start to sound like one band a new yodel or screech resides in a song and another path is taken entirely. Think the White Stripes molded with The Pixies and throw in the humor and charm of the B-52's and you're half way to understanding the trio's sound. For most this would simply be an album of incomprehensible noise, a tangled mess of wailing and guitars but TVEGC geniusly teeter on the brink, allowing their album to tentatively step within the realms of the weird and wonderful but knowing just when to whip in a catchy slice of angular rock to prevent the whole thing turning into an unimaginable mess. Sure a couple of tracks do verge on the brink of being mere fillers but these quickly pale in significance when placed beside the bouncy wit of 'My Son Spells Backwards' or the catchy chants of 'Impossible Sightings Over Shelton' making TVEGC an astonishingly mesmerizing and addictive new act.