Crooked Fang sent in a track for our 3rd compilation, a mesmerising, mildly psychedelic number called ‘ Rome is on Fire’, and having subsequently checked out the album, its safe to say I’m hooked. The brainchild of Mules/Harker guitarist Louis May, the project resonates a distinctly 80’s vibe, with subdued vocals decorating clanging guitars and simple driving beats. It’s not so much the content as the execution that makes it all come together so nicely: every moment is so wonderfully composed as to make a veritable mountain from otherwise rather sparse means.
Unafraid of simplicity, the self-titled album kicks off with an unadorned snare-led beat and reverberant guitars, the echoes of a motorbike circling in the distance. It’s a bit ‘post-rock’ here and there, which is potentially an insult but actually plays out pretty well for the most part, which for me is the audible equivalent of watching a really good football match: not something I tend to enjoy, but undertaken with such undeniable zest that i’m won over somewhat against my will.
There’s a pleasing diversity to the album, too – elements of pop, psych, power-pop, art-rock, porto-punk, all mingled together. To Crooked Fangs credit, there’s no overbearing reliance on hooks, which is often the downfall of this sort of thing: instead, the music begins a little subdued and stays that way, the vocals alluding to some sort of chorus but not really underscoring one. It’s an approach that keeps you on your toes: at once buffeted along by the plethora of deliberately under-baked riffs and enticed by an overarching character that never quite tells the whole story.
Go check out Crooked Fang’s awesome EP, here.
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