Gay Against You – 'Muscle Milk' (ADAADAT) Released 07/08/06

‘Muscle Milk’ opens with Atari Teenage Riot riding forth with the four horsemen of the apocalypse, accompanied by that guy from Clap Your Hands. At least, it could be. Instead, Gay Against You, are a Glaswegian clash of keytars, noise and the general defies-classification stuff that forces PR companies to invent phrases like crunk/noise wimpcore.

Over all, ‘Muscle Milk’ is a difficult album that tends to be so schizophrenic that it’s difficult to work out exactly what Oats Sofa and Mr Big Softies (Joe Howe and Lachlann Rattray to their parents) are trying to achieve. It’s not until about the half way point of this 17-track, half-hour rollercoaster that things really start making any sense. Songs like ‘TeleRAD’ and ‘Lets Build A Chinatown’ sounds like Nintendo remixed against the Faint.

Whilst there are definite strands of genius wrapt up in the 31-minutes it can frequently appear so chaotic that it’s more like a musical strafe, firing off in all directions in the hope of hitting the right target without actually knowing what that target is. The average song clocks in at under two minutes which is annoying because the stomping intro to’ 10th Anniversary Rock’ (1.19) is barely over before it lunges through ‘El Presidente Have Very Nice Pen’s (0.06) and onwards to ‘Pink Mix’ (2.09).

Its blend of mentalist noise and accessible indie electronic rock makes Gay Against You an easy target, but get beneath the surface and it’s worth the patience. 'Muscle Milk' might be a half baked album, but it still has two great chefs behind it. There are some good parts to this album, but parts are all they remain.