The Kulta Beats - Civilize the Brutes
(Cutwater)
The best Cockney accents are coming out of Norway these days, as is immediately evident on the opening track (“Diplomacy Of The Dead”) of this Trondheim band’s debut album, which melds the vaudevillian pomp and punk of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Wreckless Eric and Ian Dury & The Blockheads to catchy, big-beat harmonies a la Small Faces and Pete Townsend’s rock operas. “Medicine Monday” is all punk and snotty swagger, and fans of the Kulta’s Scandinavian neighbors to the east, Sweden’s Hives, will enjoy the cheesy keys and sweaty swagger with attitude aplenty that is “Oh Wolfman (Thou Cometh).”
The bottom drops out of “Livingrooms and Halls,” a plaintive, rather uninteresting ballad that, despite assistance from Dipsomaniac mentors, Cutwater label owners and fellow Trondheimers, Øyvind Holm and Thomas Henriksen (who also produced), leaves the listener dangling in the breeze like a malcontent with the rug pulled out from under him. “Loose Fit” is another headscratcher, with vocalist Christopher Glass inexplicably emulating a castrated Difford/Tilbrook squeal. “Julia Kristeva” is more Iggy/Stooge-mania, while “This Crowd Is Not A Nation” evinces a strong fascination with Shaun Ryder and his Happy (albeit, heavy metal) Mondays.
Ten bonus points for name-checking Fire’s cult psych classic “Father’s Name Was Dad” in the title track, a swirling, slice of Buzzcockian guitar sprawl that is one of the album’s many highlights, as is the psychedelically-tinted “Ice Blocks,” which pleasantly reminded me of Ryder fronting Kula Shaker. Sloppy, snotty, smarmy…and recommended.
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