The Brute Chorus 'The Brute Chorus' (Ska) 19/10/2009

Having knocked out a handful of singles on the Hawley Arms’ uber-trendy/wanky (delete as applicable) Bumpman Records, The Brute Chorus serve up their self-titled debut in the form of a 12 track live LP. Yes that’s right, a new indie-rock band! Ok, there are a couple of others around, but this group is wildly different. To set themselves aside from the no-hoper, copycats, these innovative chaps have attempted to blend genres as far reaching as the blues, rock and folk - it’s about time someone did!

Well, it certainly takes a very confident, or possibly very stupid band to open their all important debut by ripping-off the melody to Falco’s ‘Amadeus’ but The Brute Chorus are that band. This time, however, the focus of the song is Greek demigod ‘Hercules’. It’s probably worth mentioning at this point that the album is littered with slightly forced sounding references to mythological, historical and biblical characters. Thankfully, the record is essentially devoid of worthwhile lyrical content, so feel free to switch off on that level.

‘Hercules’ is a poorer that average cowbell-driven blues rocker that sways between cringe worthy and comical – the backing vocals, which can only be described as Rolf Harris/Jonathan Davies-esque, being especially laughable. Oh, its by no means offensive, but does little to inspire any excitement at the prospect of 11 more tracks. Unfortunately, it is a fair representation of the general quality of the record...

‘She Was Always Cool’ follows on featuring a kazoo solo...enough said about that, ‘Grow Fins’ is lyrically so poor it’s almost impossible to wade through - if you actually manage it you’re rewarded with an absolutely horrid sounding guitar solo (muggy sounding guitar tones and effects seem to be a re-occurring problem on the record) and ‘The Cuckoo and the Stolen Heart’ features a frantically, irritating guest performance by the usually relatively subdued Tigs - you can’t deny the energy of the piece but there is something awfully amateur about it all. Highlights aside, there are a few poorer tracks....

Actually, it’s not all painfully middle-of-the-road, ‘Blind Ulysees’ is a fairly tender and well structured piece, hampered by some slightly tuneless backing vocals, and Tom Waits-esque ‘Chateau’ sounds sloppy but is by far the closest the group get to capturing a band sounding live and exciting. Aside from possible financial issues it’s hard to see why the band opted for a live recording over a studio album. The only time it’s even apparent the recording is live is when the crowd of three hundred “loyal fans” whoop and holler over-enthusiastically at the end of each track - oh, and the spattering of mistakes left in so we all know just how bloody rock and roll they are - "Fuck yeah!"

There are an overwhelming number of artists around mining similar genres, and of those I expect 95 to 100% are doing it better. A lifeless recording of chiefly lacklustre material which, remarkably, actually gets worse with repeated listens. Probably one best left to the loyal fans... wait a minute, wasn't Brute Chorus the Greek God of mediocrity?