After a long hiatus since their last release, 2008’s Kicked in the Teeth, The Termites will shortly release their first album in eighteen years on 13 Deluxe Records in the shape of a live album, Square Go. The record is a celebration of their recent return to the live stage with gigs in a big top in the grounds of Kilmarnock’s Dean Castle, from whence this album recording comes, and Glasgow’s Audio, which I was fortunate to have attended.
The album’s title was initially planned as the name for a new studio album, but Square Go was far too appropriate a title to pass up for a recording that catches for posterity the raucous nature of those live shows with wrecking pits of heaving bodies slamming into each other, chicken dancing elbows akimbo in a good natured square (dancing) go… I admit that despite my advancing years, I was sorely tempted to join the melee in Audio but my sensible head took over telling me I’d probably have needed about a week to recover.
The recording and production of Square Go perfectly encapsulates the celebratory vibe and riotous nature of the bands recent live performances, the majority of the songs coming from their Kicked in the Teeth album with a smattering of Overload tracks including the opening salvo of that record’s eponymous opening instrumental setting out their stall before the batshit crazy energy of Crazy Mama kicks in followed by the pumped up pulsating driving rhythm of Kicked in the Teeth. The berserking increases tenfold as the nihilistic uninhibited abandon of FTW kicks in with its more valid than ever two fingered salute to all the motherfuckers of the world. I’m already metaphorically trying to gather myself after this breathless aural assault, but no time for that as the demented zeal continues with the gritty rumble of Don’t Touch and it’s be venomously accusatory lyrics before the accelerator pedal is floored once again as the frantically boisterous Devil Call takes hold. “I’m a bad man baby” calls Kenny gruffly as the introduction to, funnily enough, the exuberant admissions of Bad Man.
It has to be said the band are tight as fuck, Bally rocks hard firing out solid riffs and guitar lines, while Ewin pounds out some machine gun beats on the skins and Dougie provides the sonorous stand up bass thumps and slaps. The extra textures provided by Johnny Fiddles and his psychotically frenzied attacking of his strings, and of course The Duke’s gruffly coarse maniacal vocals add the cherry on top of the cake. Devils showcases Johnny Fiddles playing perfectly, giving the song a hint of a Devil Went Down to Georgia vibe as he plays with a such fervency you’d believe his life depended on it, it is timely as I listen to this and the theme of it’s lyrics given the display of hatred, prejudice and bigotry on Glasgow’s streets yesterday…maybe then the next song is also prescient, as Somebody’s Gonna Pay is laced with a thinly veiled layer of menace, the understated intro bursts into life after The Dukes threats, with a blistering inherent malice in the latent ferocity of his vocals. The underlying air of menace continues into Bubblegum as Johnny’s smoulderingly incessant fiddle takes hold and creates the backbone of the song before it takes on a hot-blooded bonkers edge. That delirious energy continues into the suitably raucous closer Rockin’ All Night, a suitably ferocious explosion of breakneck speed and sizzlingly celebratory animated vitality to finish with.
I think I need a lie down now.
Stick this record on, pump up the volume and you’ll be back down the front soaking up the feverish and spirited energy, close your eyes and I swear you can almost feel the heaving mass of sweaty bodies, the palpable intensity of the music and the recording transcends reality and creates such a visceral experience, you’re back right in the centre of the action.
The album will be released on the 1st of August and will come as three vinyl options – standard vinyl with band photos, limited animal print “Endangered” edition and ultra rare 13 Deluxe Records edition (limited to 13 copies).
