Pre - Epic Fits (Album Review)

 

Pre - Epic Fits

(2007)


My copy: 2007 press on blue vinyl by Skin Graft Records.


Beginning (as all punk bands do) with a small rash of 7” singles and live performances, London’s Pre committed roughly 25 minutes of blistering rock chaos to their debut LP in 2007. Short, sweet and absurd: Epic Fits falls a touch behind more extravagant contemporaries but delivers a shocking one-two slam of bulldozing rhythms and freakish pseudo-melody. 

“Drool” lights a spark that hardly falters across the whole of the record, launching unintelligible verbal assaults backed by hammering bass grooves and syncopated guitar wails. Their dual bass setup (reminiscent of Cop Shoot Cop) builds a brutal skeleton while vocalist Akiko Matsuura and guitarist J. Art Webb do everything to unravel the rhythm through crashing bursts of high-end noise. “Fudging On Our Folks” surges like lightning from a busted outlet, building pressure for the repetitious industrial clash of “Scenes From A 1963 Los Angeles Love-In” where wolf-like howls invite a hint of sweetness. The production throws you directly into the mosh-pit of a sweaty basement show, inviting you to bathe in the uncomfortable pauses that stretch on the back half of “Ace Cock.” 

More convulsions arrive on “I Met Her In The Bin” before the absurdist, frantic bouncing of “Nope Fun”: tying them into the raging technicality of noise-punkers like Massacre. Pre never fully indulge in such flagrant technicality though, placing their sound somewhere between Melt Banana and riot grrrl punk. They avoid feeling gimmicky by balancing the levels - “So Jazzed” creates such violent walls of sound that anything in between feels tame and poppy by contrast. It is not as if they are immune to pop, as songs like “Dude Fuk” and “Popping Showers” both invite nervous bits of catchy melody. 

The beatdown continues through the final three songs, with the short “Ride Ride Ride” coming closest to Lightning Bolt levels of density. With the style of music pertaining to Epic Fits, occasional moments of solace are critical to break up such vehement songwriting. There are times where the band’s desire to keep the energy moving causes their short songs to blend together, but there are often valid sonic experiments that save these more rudimentary efforts from falling to familiarity. Maybe not the best in casual listening; Pre is best served amongst the masses of your nearest and dearest house-venue mosh-pit.

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