The Retro Spankees
My Sonic Driver

Ah, there’s nowt that warm the cockles of our twee indie tickers than the sight of four kids in tabards, displaying their impressive collection of yellow toy ducks over a nearby ironing board whilst trying, unsuccessfully, to hide their blood-soaked fangs. Luckily for us, The Retro Spankees also happen to make the most knee-twitchingly teeny-shiny lo-fi hi-noise racket since some joker liberally rubbed Jeffrey Lewis’ jeans with itching powder and turned the amps up for the result.

Such liberal attitudes towards structural decency show in their debut single ‘My Sonic Driver’ which, in the one-hundred-and-sixteen seconds it hangs about, manages to mash together scratchy guitars, squeals, squeaks, shrieks, other vocals of a bewilderingly high-register and, as the icing on the cake, something resembling a pop song. It seems so effortless in creating clattering chaos that you suspect this lot could one day easily create a sonic representation of armageddon with some elastic bands and an empty bottle of household detergent. Or something. Not only that, but ‘Mr Brilliant’ shows that they can steer away from their more noticeably anti-folk leaning and write a stomping tune if they want to, although still on their own skyscrapingly-pitched and pleasingly idiosyncratic terms. Job’s a good ‘un.

“Ha ha, you’ve got flat tyres” they intone sweetly on ‘Easy Squeezy’. I reckon Rock n’ Roll’s already tasting the exhaust.