Menace Beach - Rat World - A review of sorts

 

I'm on a fast. Saturday has become a day of fasting. One of two days a week where I can eat bugger all in the name of losing weight. Impending wedding, gluttonous Christmas, requires a reduction of the waste line and 'love handles'. It has been less of a drag than I envisaged and with a bit of will power you can avoid the temptations of the calorlicious. I am hungry though. The remnants of sweets and chocolate from the season-to-be-gorging have been binned in an attempt to remove the said temptation (except someone always has a birthday at work, or a family member has a big birthday right in the middle of one of your fat fighting attempts) so there is nothing to forage for, apart from green stuff in the fridge ready for dinner later. Sat in your own home, you feel the urge to go on the search, there must be something I can eat that won't jeopardise my calorie count. I know there isn't a lot that won't, but the desire to go for a scavenge is increasing.

For those of you old enough to remember the classic 90's "lads" sitcom 'Men Behaving Badly', may recall a scene where Neil Morrissey's character Tony is making a half hearted attempt at losing weight by running around the flat, doing star jumps and cutting his finger and toe nails. Very quickly he gives in, to the pathetic exercise, and to his hunger, and begins rummaging through the rubbish bin for a horrible, stale slice of pizza with an old banana skin draped across it.

Well I can empathise. With the sentiment anyway. I know what's in my kitchen rubbish and won't be wading through that in the hope of finding something.

I bring this up because I am listening to the wonderfully pink splattered vinyl of the debut album by Menace Beach, Rat World. It is so called, as Ryan Needham, one half of the permanent duo at the heart of the band, stated in an interview, because a visiting friend of his commented that the flat that he and Liza Violet (the other half) share in Leeds was so messy, untidy and generally resembling of a rubbish tip that it must be a "Rat World". The image has stuck in my head and listening to this record, it strangely conjures an imaginary "Rat World" something almost BBC 6pm on Sunday, Narnia/Burrowers like. It could easily soundtrack a documentary of a rat infested flat, a POV from the rat's perspective.

This is in no way to it's detriment. It is fantastically grimy. As has been written before regarding this band of many parts, they aren't necessarily doing anything that hasn't been done back in the 90's. A lo-fi, scuzzy guitar, pop record. There are beautiful elements of light and shade, when the power-punk 90 second "Low Talkin'" stretches into the Liza led "Blue Eye", all sweet, almost indistinguishable vocals and droning, fuzz guitar that marry together perfectly, it is a really effective contrast, mainly as you are already used to the backing vocals of the slight, axe wielding Liza and her coming to the fore works seamlessly.

What attracts about Menace Beach is the familiarity. For someone approaching their mid-30's, like myself, there is a huge dollop of nostalgia and whimsical staring into the ether, day-dreaming about what was great about being 14-18 in the mid-to-late 90's.There is a myriad of influences. Sitting here listening to the record for the second time around this morning, you can pick up more note-worthy bands. The Breeders, Elastica and Slowdive are fairly obvious, but there are further nods hidden away in each song. Sleeper, Feeder, Nirvana spring to mind.

In a world where there is this demand for something new and original to excite us, there is a mass of bands and artists aping all their influences. The general obsession in the mainstream to flip from one decade to another as the next kitsch music style to throw your hat on and introduce to the next generation who were all in nappies and at playschool, or at best just starting school, when the 90's shuffled to a close, it's odd and some what hypocritical to mark down a band for un-originality. We are going to be waiting a long, long time for something like that because it has barely ever happened.

Every band on this planet are channelling their influences and favourite bands through their writing and they have been for 60 years.

Someone said Menace Beach need to find their voice. This is their voice. What do they want from them? This is what I want from them.

I can't stand the word pop, mainly as it covers all necessary evils. It would do. It means 'Popular'. Yet, it has come to encapsulate a style of music, become a genre. If you had to use that word, it would describe the spirit of this record. The speed and frantic pulse of the album screams 'pop'.

If I have to use it, it is a pop record. It's a fantastic, lo-fi, scuzzy, fuzzy pop record, made by a band scurrying around their little "Rat World" set somewhere between 1993 and 1998.