Scare Taxi, if they are new to you feature Boag from These Animal Men and Tara. On their debut album, we get ten tracks of garage rock filtered through powerpop and new wave influences.
Opener Great Things On My Mind has a lovelorn bittersweet quality which brings the Buzzcocks to mind with added garage punk for good measure. For Our Sisters For Our Brothers follows in a similar vein.
For Anna, Tara takes vocal duties and we get a more groovy sixties vibe with effects. Joe Meek would’ve been proud to call this one of his! Get Up Get Off is a rhythm led groover coming from an undefined point somewhere between Pub Rock and New Wave.
Lunacy is a what-if Siouxsie & The Banshees were equal parts Pop and Goth as the song alternates between light and dark. The guitar sounds are eerily like John McGeoch. The Revelator has a narcoleptic, queasy otherworldly quality as if Boag and Tara are dredging the song from who knows where doing who knows what to who knows who!
Fly is angular New Wave which propels the album forward after the two previous slower tracks. Guitars fly and a song which features buzz, buzz, buzz, buzz as a refrain can’t be wrong. If It Bothers You? keeps up the frantic tempo. Kickin Down Doors is New Wave in Cramps clothes.
Closer Love‘n’Loathe’n’Peace’n’Anger is a slow/fast song which starts like a long lost single by Black Box Recorder, all mannered indie-pop before veering off into guitar fireworks and sonic bombardment and back again. My favourite of ten strong tracks.
Death By Music is a journey through guitar music from the Mid Sixties through to the Early Eighties. Garage Rock/Pub Rock/Punk/New Wave/Goth all present but giving us new music today from the best of yesterday. Indie Kid, Punk, Britpopper? Try this.
Death By Music? At least you’ll scuttle off this mortal coil with a smile on your face. Go listen!
Death By Music released digitally worldwide by Kill Art Movement on January 17th 2020.
Linkage:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ScareTaxi/
- Bandcamp: Death By Music, by Scare Taxi
Plugged In Brighton 