PENS - Hey Friend What You Doing?

PENS- Hey Friend What You Doing?
 8/10

Charmingly ramshackle and wonderfully youthful, London trio PENS create sweet scuzz thrash punk with a psychedelic twist. Opener ‘Horsies’ will have your head spinning with its repetitive keyboard riff and elliptical vocals. Swathed in even more noise, ‘I Sing Just For You’ is a coyly sweet ode once you get used to the distortion, there are beautiful sounds growing underneath. This is a noise band with energy and enthusiasm to match clever song writing. Still with that ever-cool edge, songs like ‘1-2’ reek of after school boredom, knocking out super speedy rhythms with super gritty sounds produced from a dumpster drum kit, munted toy keyboard, guitar and £1 mic.

The noise can almost feel like too much at times, but the songs are fast and endearing. Instant classic ‘High In The Cinema’ is the clincher, it’s track four and by now you know whether you love them or hate them. If you’re in the former camp you’ll revel in the apocalyptic bliss, the swerving rhythms, the high of the chorus and the comedown of the verse.

The main vocal’s an almost reggae call-out – “we got no money yeah we gotta break in”. ‘Networking’ and ‘Freddie’ are sweet highlights and ‘Fuckufuckinfuck’ has one of the best titles ever to match a perfectly raucous, bored/distracted/tired lament. The positioning of frenetic ‘Hide The Kids’ followed by the disbanded emotion of ‘Sally Ain’t Nobody’ is genius. Turns out no apologies are needed for the production; the noise is like another instrument, constantly chugging along and adding to the adventure of discovering track by track just how wonderfully exciting and fun PENS are.

Sarah

Release date: September 15 on De Stijl Records | Pre-order CD/LP!

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