Loose Fit

With a name like Loose Fit you’d think the resultant sound would be baggy, roomy, expansive and full of airy manoeuvring. However, the opposite is true on this 5 track E.P. Every song is sleek, clean and pristine, claustrophobically atmospheric, an air-tight and controlled dub-dance.

To say these songs aren’t led and misled down the avant garden path by Richard Martin’s bass guitar would be disingenuous. Instead, its generous placement at the forefront of matters allows the paratextual elements (vox-vexations/axe-grinding/percussion-concussion and woodwindy-wails) to supplement, complement and implement an austere ambience.

With echoes of Girls at our Best (‘Reflux’), Delta 5, PiL and New York’s No Wave anti-aesthetics, singer and sax-symbol Anna Landon also divines Lora Logic’s honk-skronk and James Chance’s contorted dances: the overall feel is a noir punk-funk groove.

‘Pull the lever’ metaphorically substitutes the ‘smart’-phone for the bright lit tricks of the one-armed bandit, those behaviourally predictive neurally addictive games-of-no-win where the end result is ‘that’s ya slot, Game Over’. Three bells equal one dumbbell. Max Edgar’s lacerating guitar reminds of Keith Levene’s dystopic drones on Public Image Limited’s ‘Metal Box’.

‘Riot’ is a hypnotic call and response with Landon calling out someone who despite there being a commotion on her doorstep is ‘so tepid’. Apathy kills.

The dark mood of depression permeates ‘Black Water’. Murky capillaries pump misery round the body, chased by the black dog that perpetually hounds, haunted by the black cloud that pours its poisonous properties upon your every being, it’s a familiar air of despair that won’t be shaken. ‘It never ever leaves you’ no matter where, when and who you go with. However, this song aims to remind that you may be down, but never out. Shake some reaction.

‘Delete’ has a snake-charming bassline that has traces of early Duran Duran. The angriest song on the E.P.

Each song is supremely allied to drummer Kaylene Milner’s spinal-tapping, spartan metrononomics.

A brilliant introductory statement from this band.