Head Noise – ‘Metric Squid’ (Self Released)

I’ve been what you might call a “curious bystander” when it comes to RCT based electro-art combo Head Noise for quite a few years now. I first got to hear of them back in our Uber Rock days when our resident king of all things keytar Dave Prince brought in one of the band’s early tapes to review, and on first play it was like “what (and perhaps more importantly, who) the hell is this”? 

Thankfully, long gone are the days when every new band from south Wales wanted to look and sound just like The Alarm, but it is that very same ‘80s heyday from which Mitchell Tenant, Wayne Basset and Jordan Brill draw their influences for what is Head Noise.

You can almost hear the studio trimphone ringing out in the background as the opening bleeps to ‘Sea Of Noise’ spark this eight track EP into life. Part Blancmange, part Depeche Mode but all twisted up for a whole new generation, this track will have you rolling up the sleeves on your dayglo cotton suit and looking for a pair of espadrilles (socks a definite no, no) ready to go see the band live.

‘T.U.R.Q.’ moves things into a much more Thomas Dolby-like musical Landscape (see what I did there?) with some excellent use of spoken word samples which really set the atmosphere for those future worlds that Tomorrow’s World used to tease us with back in the days of puppy (and yuppie) power.

‘Meteor Man’, which is up next, perhaps shades it for me as best song here, and is a glorious feelgood anthem which if given a Giorgio Moroder remix would surely be a packing dancefloors worldwide come a weekend.  And almost by direct contrast ‘Failed Ideology [Cult] which follows carries a much darker warning message for all possible future Squidheads.

It’s the EP’s unofficial title track ‘Computer Games’, that launches side 2 of ‘Metric Squid’ and this Mi-Sex cover version manages to somehow squeeze pulsating Vince Clarke keyboards into a world that is full of Animotion sass and Devo lyrical lunacy, and my life is all the better for finally having this earworm in it, as an obscure cover is always a great way of discovering new/old bands. It’s a song that also ties in perfectly with the EP’s wonderful cover art, something which immediately takes me back to the days of sitting waiting for a computer tape to upload so I could enjoy 2 or 3 minutes of some blocky pixelated game before it eventually crashed, and I ended up throwing my controller across the room.

It’s that all too familiar noise of 80s data transfer that also ushers in the last three tracks on ‘Metric Squid’, and these are also a series of covers versions, but by the likes of A Flock Of Seagulls, Timbuk 3 and The Metronomes, and whilst these are all professionally delivered straight and true to the originals, I can’t help but long for more original Head Noise fun and games on my C30, something that speaks volumes for just how exciting this young band are, being much more than just some novelty band with one eye on all things Moog.

Available on Sunday 23rd April on cassette format and download (you can also order it via the linktree below), with a tie-in live show at The Moon, Cardiff scheduled for the same day, ‘Metric Squid’ is a fantastic leap of consciousness into the weird and wonderful world of Head Noise, and I love every goddam bleep of it.

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Author: Johnny ‘Commadore 64’ Hayward