Don’t get lulled into a false sense of security with the album’s opener drifting you downstream with its picked lush notes. ‘Spirit Trouble Flash’ kicks in on intros heels with its jarring shuddering rhythm and aggressive rolling riff it’s prime time punk rock with its thuggish bass run chasing you down and it’s Fugazi style vocals. Stirring stuff.

There’s a JJ Burnell vibe about the bass attack with its walking basslines front and centre but the same can’t be aimed at the melodies and vocals as they jarr and poke you uncomfortably at times (in a good way that retains your attention).

That rhythmic jarring bass and drum combo continues through ‘Not This, Not This’ as it builds with some choppy guitars. It’s dark in the same way the Gun Club were dark or Gallon Drunk when they would slay the dark corners of London.

Playing the smoky casino bars of Reno, Nevada sometime in the last decade is where only the lucky few would have come across Spitting Image. A few small run cassette tapes or 7″ records with cryptic art and far-out distortion, or at a party, they ritually summon to any warehouse, parking lot, basement, or Great Basin lake shore they can find, you didn’t. But thanks to Slovenly Recordings, who share a hometown with the band and have sought out this record to reward those around the world who crave the finest in underground alternative rock n roll of all persuasions. It’s fair to say this is a fuckin killer record. The gargling bassline of ‘Turn Person’ as it tribal drums its way to the headfuckin chorus is addictive like musical crack.

And it’s dark, but that in a good dark in a way the kind you appreciate afterwards. Donovan Williams’ merciless tribal drumbeats drive songs like ‘Devils Bloom’ and ‘Still Thing’, but it only works in conjunction with Jack Scribner’s basslines and guitarist Julian Jacobs’ schizophrenic and out-there guitar attack.

‘Not This Not This’ is like the very early Chuck songs of Faith No More if they were more like Gun Club and early Banshees spoon-fed as children. It’s also the charm of the live feel almost demo-like qualities of the songs like ‘Broadcast’ as they flirt with jazzy edges. With the driving drums and that sharp echoing guitar it’s often a beautiful thing when a band hits the bullseye.

‘Black Box’ is a more frantic offering with its uncompromising Fuzz from start to finish. The band pick up the pace on the blistering ‘Still Thing’ which sets the tone for the next few songs as the band kicks out the jams as ‘Devils Bloom’ is a frantic dash before the interlude then for the final furlong we get the trip out of ‘In Menace Meadow’ that grows and grows like a shadow creeping up a wall over its four-plus minutes. Then to sign off the band shuffle off on the altogether mellow ‘Full Son’ altogether a handsome album of psych alternative rock. The more I play it the more the songs mature inside my head with different parts jostling to the front and grabbing my attention twisting and turning this album into a very impressive journey that I will be taking time and time again. ‘Full Sun shines.

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Author: Dom Daley