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It's always easy to pigeonhole a band in terms of their geographical circumstances but anyone expecting Bristol based group Chikinki to trade in laid back, dope fuelled hip hop and child porn accusations will be sadly disappointed. Instead these new signings to Island reject any attempt to be pinned down. Their sound is impressively varied, employing banks of technology operated by earnest young men with glasses and tousled hair, which seem to produce an unruly and frankly rather exciting mesh of punk/funk styling.
Melded to the icy shards of wiry new wave spitting forth from the guitar and the enthusiastic yelps of a young man who's spent may an hour preening into his mirror it becomes an irresistible combination. Like Hot Hot Heat without the annoying Canadian bits or the Lo Fi Allstars with more tunes, debut single 'Time' is a fine calling card for a band clearly on the rise.
After observing the fresh faced exuberance of a band staring at the stars, it comes as something of a shock to come face to face with a group who seem more than happy to live a gutter based existence. Crucially though Ten Benson seem to be revelling in their surroundings. Looking like the results of a Jeff Goldblum style accident involving one of Lemmy's warts and one of those sort of men who shout on buses and smell of wee, Ten Benson sell their own line of underpants and have a song called 'Tits'. This alone would make them stars, but added to their riotous ZZ Top jamming with the Jesus Lizard sound, it could make them popular as well.
New album 'Danger of Deaf' is a one take re-recording of all their greatest songs from previous outings and proves that behind the madness there's some fine tunes just begging to ask you for change. 'Robot Tourist' is a good example of their combination of AC/DC style dynamics and electro based weirdness and in this time of two bit testifiers it's clear that singer Chris Teckkam has little choice but to practice what he preaches. The latest in a long line of knowing punk ironists such as Earl Brutus and Gold Blade, they may be but Ten Benson would far rather you left with a nasty cough than a knowing smile.
Photos by Sakura Henderson :: sakura@gigwise.com
