Review: Super Luxury - Ten Solid Years Of Applause

As regular readers of this blog will have no doubt noticed I like to occasionally intersperse my normal psych listening with something more....erm...noisy, whether it be the balls-out rock of Bad Guys, the dark riffs of Henry Blacker or the noise punk of Grey Hairs. I was recently contacted by Chris from Leeds based Super Luxury, a band of whom I had never heard but when they said they were influenced by 'Jesus Lizard, AC/DC and Fugazi' my interest was well and truly piqued. So, anyway, gave 'Ten Solid Years Of Applause' a listen and.....wow! This is an album packed with noise, attitude, no small amount of humour and some monster riffs (and also one of the longest and best track titles ever but more of that later).

The band self-record their own music, film their own high-budget videos and produce their own artwork, the LP was entirely recorded at Leeds' Brudenell Social Club and, as their website states, "try and keep live shows as fun as possible". This spirit of fierce independence mixed with a sense of fun is surely what music should be about....not big corporate labels whoring out pre-pubescent boy bands or whey-eyed girls droning on about ruined love affairs (sorry...rant over!)

Anyway, to the music. It's not hard to hear the aforementioned influences; the ghost of The Jesus Lizard haunts the noise like a hardcore spectre while some of the spikier, post-punk touches do bring to mind Fugazi, and indeed their forefathers Minor Threat, and at this point it would seem apposite to mention track 4, entitled " Ian Mackaye made so much money out of Fugazi that he lives in a solid gold house and drives a solid gold car and he sits on his driveway but he can't go anywhere because the wheels are made of solid gold " - genius! It is a response to the criticisms aimed at the former Fugazi frontman and his reported wealth. It takes longer to read the title than it does to listen to the track....twice, it is a loving (!) tribute to both MacKaye and hardcore punk....and has become one of my favourite tracks of the year so far.

There is no effort to be clever or subtle, and when you sound this loud there is no need. Some of the riffs are monolithic and the energy and intensity levels never fall below manic level. This album is a joy....a very noisy joy....but a joy nonetheless. It is hard, heavy and unrelenting....one slab of sludgy noise leads into another, one huge riff seques into another equally huge riff....ad infinitum. All in all...a bloody great noise album that will be played round these parts for a good while, as long as my speakers hold out!

The album can be bought from the band's Bandcamp page in CD or digital formats.