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Review: Holy Youth Movement, Strange Brew – ‘Close to perfection’
All the best rock & roll bands do their homework. Think the Manics and their geek love for The Clash and McCarthy. Think The Ramones’ worship of Nuggets and countless 60’s girl groups. Think The Stones paying homage to the Deltas.
Add to that list Bristol’s Holy Youth Movement, playing their biggest hometown show to date and wearing their influences like a uniform. They’ve not just done their homework, they’ve stolen all the books from the library, minced them up and fed them straight into their bloodstream.
They are a jolting, thumping, pulsing rock and roll monster. All boy-gang rock and roll swagger with huge squiggly beats all over them. They’ve put the study in on The Primals, The Cult and Chemical Brothers too.
is needed now More than ever
Tom Newman leans on his mic stand, jump-suited with shades on – he is Astbury insouciance, Morrison cool; he sings like every classic rock voice you’ve ever heard. An Iggy snarl, a Bowie croon, a Bobby Gillespie rock-God strut.
As they tear into latest single, The New One, there’s craziness raging around him, yet he’s aloof and jet-black. Massive breakbeat slabs crash, punching lumps out of metal guitars as searing projections slash and flicker. All senses are instantly overloaded.
The first five tracks tonight are as close to perfection as you’re likely to get. As close to a thrilling onslaught as any you can imagine.
Once The New One is smashed into submission, You Thought I Was Dead (But Baby I’m Just Getting Started) arrives as a pummeling anthem. It’s thunderous. It’s the sort of song that feels as though it’s been crafted from rock and roll’s DNA, something that’s been around forever. How can a new(ish) song spark nostalgia?
The electro-pulse of The Shock of the Future sends shock waves across Strange Brew, re-arranging internal organs. Guitars shred as thunder and lightning cascade outwards, inwards, sideways. Newman’s the brooding eye of the storm, Schmit conjures a squall of electronics.
Huge beats hammer, rocking blocks, leaving a planet of dust. It’s dance-rock, it’s beat-metal, it’s rock and roll. It’s dumb and loud and so much fun.
Information is Beautiful belies the hand that both Jagz Kooner (Sabres Of Paradise) and Andrew Innes (Primal Scream) have had in creating this monster. It’s a colossal electronic wig-out with added drums, as beautiful, as exciting as anything on XTRMNTR, as danceable as Wilmot.
If Alan Vega and Suicide were created just to make us dance then they’d sound like Tranquilizer. It ends with the insistent wail of a car alarm but has taken in savage guitar grooves, drums that cause space to vibrate and, finally, an energised Newman clearing space for a helter-skelter dash back on to his stage. It’s triumphant.
There’s an album to come, and plenty of festival appearances over the summer too. Holy Youth Movement have done their homework and now they’re looking for some serious fun.
Main photo: Gavin McNamara
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