Mucky Sailor @ Milo
By Matthew Humphreys
Impossibly big-mouthed Richard Archer of chart-hugging Staines chancers Hard-Fi props the bar up and gazes amenably into the eyes of his young paramour, trying hard not to notice being noticed and no doubt savouring the relaxed Thursday night vibrations and eclectic vinyl selections of the Chicken Shack DJs. So this is Leeds, thinks he, live music capital of the north. That electric piano with the Jen Synthatone keyboard bass on top of it looks interesting. Mmmm. Drums, no guitar. And what a lot of pedals...
Clad in matching white nautical uniforms replete with cheeky cabin boy's caps, Mucky Sailor shuffle downstairs, give a quick wave to the assembled punters and proceed to birth their new, decibel-defying baby for the first time. Comprising two of the many minds behind the similarly well-heeled mayhem of Romp With Blonde and Ike Turner's Fist (among others), such sartorial attention to detail and titular penchant for subversion come as standard. Carry On Band Name aside, however, Mucky Sailor have not overlooked that most essential of musical ingredients, a decent song or two.
Not that this is immediately becomes apparent. A whirlwind 25-minute set is played at near nosebleed-inducing volume. Drums are mercilessly hammered into unwilling submission and distorted piano wails and wah-wahs like the only eight-year old on the estate without an ASBO. Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Add N to X's estranged uncle that the family never mentions, Mucky Sailor gallop along all flailing breakbeats and dirty, legs-akimbo bass riffs. It's a mangled motorway pile-up of noise that sees the kind of epileptic time signatures any self-respecting jazz purist sneers at veering wildly into Black Country Rock wig-outs without a second's notice. Imagine John Coltrane's A Love Supreme covered by Black Sabbath at Donnington, only not half as bad as that sounds. Indeed, a relatively straight take on 'Paranoid' is tossed off with tongue firmly placed in cheek, but not before Mr. Archer and friend make a hasty exit, suitably nonplussed.
True, this is not exactly Radio 2 playlist material, yet beneath the intensity of the aural assault there lurks some skilful songwriting and nimble arrangements. Mid-set a breezy verse of chopped staccato chords segues into a beautiful psychedelic middle 8 reminiscent of Stereolab on a bad trip. Later, they even offer up a good old-fashioned sing-along chorus in a potentially dancefloor-filling faux-disco anthem to chemical excess. Although the heavily phased vocals are a little hard to discern within my now titinus-wracked eardrums, any refrain that rhymes Necromancer/Drug-enhancer/Dancer/Cancer deserves a second listen and should technically be pumping out of the PA system at casualty-strewn Student Unions up and down the country every Friday night.
Staring maniacally at each other's lipstick-smudged faces, Mucky Sailor are just ever so slightly - and refreshingly - silly to watch, but luckily they play their songs as seriously as they deserve to be heard. Part White Stripes, part Alan Partridge with the chocolate mouse in the travel tavern bedroom, they relax post-gig with a well-earned beverage at the bar. Over their shoulder, hirsute late arrival Danny McNamara of chart-hugging Huddersfield chancers Embrace gazes amenably into the eyes of his young paramour, trying hard not to notice being noticed. That electric piano with the Jen Synthatone keyboard bass on top of it looks interesting, thinks he. Mmmm. Drums, no guitar. And what a lot of pedals...
