Albums Released 21 July 2008

With enough tracks to fill two albums by most bands, albeit still short enough to fit on one side of a C90 (ooh, who's showing their age now?), WETDOG (for they do like to shout) are certainly not short of ideas, nor are they short of energy or original post-punk spirit.

The fabulously-titled 'Stumpy Torso' has a fantastically childlike quality, muddy production that suggests it was recorded in someone's linen cupboard and a surprise trumpet line. Later on, 'Cowhide' repeats the formula (sans trumpet sadly) and finds singer Rivka Gillieron in excruciating Violet Bott mode. Best of the bunch are 'Nancy Riley' which recalls such post-riot grrrrl acts as the Voodoo Queens and Mambo Taxi at their sludgy, ramshackle best and 'Shit Day', a psychobilly car crash of funereal hammond arpeggios and driving drumbeats.

The single 'Alibi' perfectly sums up the band's plan to find one idea or riff that works and stick with it. Tracks like this will never win the band an Ivor Novello award but it will give them a few years playing small gigs to appreciative, if not completely loopy, audiences which sounds like much more fun than playing next year's Brit Awards could ever be.

Richard Brown

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