Album Review

Turbogeist – Alien Girl/Rats

• 5th May 2011

Turbogeist are a punk band from London that has just released a double a-side. It isn’t a very good one. The singer sounds a bit like a studio produced distorted version of the lead singer of 80s band Redskins, who were made famous for a very good song called Kick Over The Statues. That is a very good song, starkly dissimilar to this one. I hate being unnecessarily rude in reviews sitting in my little flat, not actually testing the industry’s desire for new and exciting music actually making music myself, but if I took this to its logical end I couldn’t disagree with U2, or Bruce Springsteen or Simply Red. I’ll stop this personal journey and say that I feel that occasionally I am allowed to use my temporal body to click away negative things about a band, but that I don’t too much like it.

But, anyway, this isn’t very good. Their press releases states that they have been making ‘waves’ on the London warehouse party scene, but they have not yet lapped up on the shore of my favour. Their first song ‘Alien Girl’ has a Cribs-esque speakerphone with thrashy guitars that’s intro sounds a bit like Idlewild’s “You Held The World In Your Arms”, but more punky. Coming in at a bit over 2 minutes it is a bit punchy, and you can imagine yourself clamped against someone’s sweaty back in a gig, wondering whether you’ll be able to get out of the pit, and  voraciously marking out the fire exits.

Rats doesn’t really do much more for me really, a bit more dark and foreboding in style, with fast paced guitar and an Americanised voice that is a bit irritating. The rats the size of cats line may shed light on the problem of vermin infestation in some of London’s less salubrious quarters, but the song blurs out too much deadening sound, with the rawness of the song feeling contrived and draining. Not for me, and possibly not even for the most ardent punk fans dedicated to getting dressed up and partying in warehouses.