SINGLE REVIEW LAMB QUARTET 1. COCKFIGHT
joburgess@btopenworld.com
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The bio/PR
information for the Lamb Quartet stated that
categorising this band was as difficult as trying to have a sensible conversation with US
President George Bush - I mean like no way man, we are definitely talking Al Gore
proportions here! Even the name, Lamb "Quartet" - and there are five of them for
Christ’s sake! There is no doubt that they really do mix-up the ingredients and it’s a "cocktail" of styles as the title track aptly demonstrates. With a bouncy Faith No More/Mike Patton kind of feel - particularly the vocals, which get almost manic at times - there’s also excellent downtuned riffery, chunks of ska, good thumping rhythms, as well as screamy, shouty metal. It’s truly a hybrid of sounds that gets quite melodramatic at times and somehow conjurer’s up scenes from Reservoir Dogs - see how it fucks with your mind! ‘Daycare’ - the second of three tracks - is a heads down flat out rocker, which is awesomely heavy growling rock and merges screaming hardcore with death. Incredibly short (1:26) and too the point this is excellent stuff and comes complete with a memorable lead glockenspiel break. ‘Your Cash Is Being Counted’ mixes a more melodic hard rock, with a bit of ska and switches vocals from melodic to falsetto to screaming with bizarre results, before turning all aggressive and nasty. It’s crammed with more desperate personalities than a night at the Oscars. An excellent collection of ideas brought together in a lidless esoteric package. With echo’s of Zappa type humour they managed to inject inexhaustible freshness into their music and along with the element of unpredictability it never allows the listener to be less than engrossed. The only complaint is that at 10 minutes it’s far too short… Rigsby (22nd March, 2003) |
