James Domestic (James Scott) isn’t one to rest on his laurels. The frontman of hardcore punk band, The Domestics, he has a list of other bands/side projects the length of your arm, Carrion Repeating is his first solo offering which he describes as “post-punk pop music for weirdos”.
Swagger
How would I describe this solo project? Let me try… To me the album lives in a place somewhere between the cockney geezer swagger of Ian Dury, living in a world of John Cooper Clarke observational poetry and all bundled up with a soundtrack like the coming together of The Fall and Sleaford Mods.
The album title is also a fair representation of the place where the song-writing comes from. He demonstrates a very British humour, mini kitchen sink dramas put to music if you will. Domestic’s stories are presented with an acidly sardonic wit, delivered in a laidback but beguiling manner.
British Idiosyncrasies
Throughout the album, on songs like Weekend Carbs and Holiday, his exploration of little British idiosyncrasies is acutely well observed, on Holiday observing a particular inability to switch off and enjoy a holiday for what it should be, and Weekend Carbs pretty much telling the story of my life…
The basis of the majority of the music on the album is a sparse electronic beat over which Domestic lays his wry lyrics, delivered mainly, but not always, in spoken word. Songs like Faze Out filling out the electronic base with punk guitars and a venomous vocal delivery.
Menacing
The anger isn’t just felt on Faze Out, Casual Vulture comes complete with sinister undertones while Bean Counter comes straight in with in your face with menacing guitar riffing and lyrics delivered with a healthy level of vitriol.
There is also a heavy dose of underlying messaging around mental health woven through some of the seemingly innocent tales of everyday life. Manana, with its Parklife era Blur feel, with glorious added sax, talking about plans for action and the future but with a feeling of malaise – “I’m a big fat trucker and I need to lose weight but its not gonna be today” and Push on Through, a song about driving through the night but with the chorus sung in such a manner that it feels like a elegy for life.
A heartily enjoyable album following in the vein of artists like Dead Sheeran that I’ve been thoroughly impressed with over recent years.