The Dudley Corporation, Querelle
Split 7"

It's Ireland v Italy all over again, only this time there's no Jackie Charlton figure in sight.

Dublin’s The Dudley Corporation have been riding high on a wave of critical appreciation of late, with their ‘In Love With…’ album garnering praise from the indie/zine and mainstream press alike. I’ve not heard it – sorry – but if _‘Safety Shot’ _is representative of it in any way then it must be the corker so many scribes have claimed it to be. It’s quirky, without ever becoming irritable; soothing without coming over like an aural wet blanket; and as delicately pretty, despite all the jarring, discordant guitars littering its second half, as morning dew decorating a Spring morning.

Inevitably perhaps, UK-based Italian trio* Querelle* fail to scale the dizzy heights achieved by their flip-side colleagues, or rather ride a similarly-sized tsunami. Still, ‘Invisible’ possesses a charming sense of mid-period Sonic Youth-like urgency, vocalist Gypsy’s simple rhymes gifting it the sort of instant accessibility that so many of their indigenous peers – Lo-Fi Sucks and Laundrette for example – seem to lack.

Back in the World Cup of ’94, Ireland’s footballers put one over the Italians (well, right over the keeper’s head actually). Here they do likewise, but yet again it’s a closely-fought contest.