Glasgow’s The Kidney Flowers have been gripping me recently with their rousing frenetic 11-track self-titled album. It has regularly been spinning on my turntable, kicking several shades of shit out of my speakers.
Ferocious Trashy Garage Modern Blues
This vital 3-piece, Grant on guitar/vocals, Sean on bass and Abigail on drums, play a ferociously sparkling blend of trashy garage modern blues. Unrelentless for the entirety, the instinctively primeval vocals over fuzzed-up guitars and a solid rhythm section pummel you into submission. Seriously good music, but without being po-faced or overly solemn.
Irreverance
Addictive bass heralds the mysterious Small Fingers, introducing incessant post-punk guitar riffing, while T-Rex glam stylings make an appearance on Underneath Her Thumb. The intensity returning in bucketloads on Freak with Grant bawling his vocals with ferocity. Irreverence abounds on tracks like A Really Happy Song About Throat Cancer, sticking two-fingers up in the face of the evil disease.
Senegal is a thumping behemoth of a track, an album highlight, while the irreverence returns on the derisory Pay to Piss, the savage intensity and ire channelling Bad Brains.
The Doors of perception are blown open…
Preceded by the ire-filled moody Spanish Sails Revisited, the album ends with the throbbing bass, repetitive hook and pounding drums on an unexpected but supremely welcome walloping cover of The Doors Been Down So Long. The Kidney Flowers taking the song and totally making it their own adding a hint of the dangerous late night sleaze reminiscent of the late great Dale Barclay and The Amazing Snakeheads.
Don’t be down, let The Kidney Flowers bloom and take away your stresses and irritations.
The album is available on vinyl from Never Found Records or download via bandcamp or on all the usual streaming sites