Sleepy Nasty? Call A Policeman

 

I managed to walk to the shop and buy some cigarettes. I haven't smoked any yet, but I consider it a victory. Recovery continues. I am learning social media under the tuition of friends and perhaps the days of photocopying my little fanzine are gone, but I will make something new. Home for Christmas is the target.

9 o'clock Nasty are the band I have written the most about since I stopped publishing on paper. In part that is because I sometimes see them and we talk about the old days when I used to drink with them and others of their kind at the Charlotte. A dying breed I fear. Fearless and stupid. But they seem to still be full of energy and inspired to create, and create they do. I thought their last LP was as good as they would get. They found a sound, they found a voice and they delivered several songs in succession each better than the other. When Ted, full of joy and peroxide told me they were going to "do something different" my heart sank because these are not men who keep to a single task well, and the chances were we would have something funny but irrelevant.

They have moments of magic, but I am sometimes left cold and unmoved when they try a flourish that is for their own amusement and little more.

Then they dropped off a few of their new songs, including the new single for me to listen to. I will only write about Sleepy Policeman today, the new product from their factory, but I will reference some other things too.

Well, this was a surprise. After a stream of high-powered, focused, garage-rock violence, 9 o’clock Nasty have swerved into subtlety for Sleepy Policeman. Elements of dub and dance music merge with a punk anthem to create a heady mix of groove, vitriol and menace. Only at the end does the trademark 9 o’clock Nasty twinkle of humour break through, and even then there is something unsettling about it. The first time I heard it I thought it was a little strange. Then I found myself singing all day and into the next.

It is rare for a song so pathologically brutal to also stick in your ear as you go about your day. I have said before that some kinds of music work well for my physiotherapy. Well this is a song that allows you to push back against the pain. The push forward for one more step.

That is all I have to say about the song. I could say more. But it is sublime. Simple on the surface, rich and complex underneath. 

When I listened to the other songs, I was more surprised. They all share something. But they genuinely are a more varied and strange mix of material, some instantly memorable, some needing a few plays to get into, but all well-constructed, well executed and purposeful. 

Please though readers, many of you will be in bands yourselves. Reach out to me and send me new material to hear and review. I make no charge, I offer only my own thoughts.