Diablofurs
'Sweet Janine' / 'Flowers To Burn'

(Punk Fox Records XOF011)

As trashy as it is glamorous, this blast of punk has appropriately scuzzy production values that instantly reminded me of those thrilling first few singles by Birdland in the late 1980’s. It’s pretty lo-fi in comparison to previous singles in the Punk Fox back catalogue but it shines like a jewel for it.

 

Wielding a fuzzbox guitar riff like it was a bicycle chain, the lead song is an ode to the titular Janine spat out in a theatrical manner not unlike Lux Interior at his most ghoulish. It's quite hard to keep a track of the words amongst the melee but Janine is by turns sweet and mean.

The sound design on both tracks leaves the lyrics buried in the mix but to my ears, this gives the songs an edgy, ambiguous quality. And anyways, that never did Spacemen 3 any harm did it??

Both songs instantly establish the bands unusual identity and their sound has enough scope to allow Diablofurs to expand far beyond the reach of this impressive opening shot.

So it's another loogie in the eye of the pop charts from the always interesting Punk Fox label. By celebrating the furthermost corners of the punk genre where the normative holds no currency, this label continues a dazzling run.

Rich

https://diablofurs.bandcamp.com/track/sweet-janine

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