Track-by-Track - KASMS' 'Spayed' Dissected

London-based four-piece KASMS are an act to monitor closely over the remainder of the year and beyond, as their trajectory seems certain to be an upward one: this week they’ve released their debut album ‘Spayed’ – not ‘Sprayed’ as published in the latest issue of Clash Magazine – and been confirmed as support to The Gossip on the US act’s European tour dates.

Described as purveyors of ‘shriekbeat’ – see them live and it’ll make sense – the foursome’s (Rachel Mary Callaghan – vocals; Gemma Fleet – bass, vocals; Scott R Walker – guitar, drums; Rory Brattwell – guitar, drums) album is a riveting listen, acerbic like few debuts and resonating with a completeness that can only come from achievements in previous guises – members have served time in other outfits prior to KASMS. It’s a double-thumbs-up victory for spit and snarl over subtlety and scene-pleasing convention… but don’t take just one person’s opinion for it. Below is Ric Rawlins’ review of the record, as taken from issue 38 of Clash Magazine.

Kasms
‘Spayed’
Trouble Records
Ever wondered what it’d be like to participate in an orgy of whips, hookahs, necrophilia and Satanic communion? In a grotto? While urinating into your own mouth through a pipe? Then step this way, because KASMS’ debut LP is just the ticket. Echo-punk rubs shoulders with ‘Death Valley 69’-style sexual psychosis throughout, with singer Rachel Mary Callaghan gripping you in a leather glove and squeezing until blood dribbles out of your eyeballs. Things get interestingly tropical on the surf-flavoured ‘Mackerel Sky’, a B-movie ride into a dark vampiric night. Elsewhere, the LP is never less than hallucinogenic, hysterical and intoxicating.

Below, Rory Brattwell guides us through the album, track by track – also, get a free download of their last single ‘Male Bonding’ after Rory’s dissection of ‘Spayed’.

‘Male Bonding’ - To be honest I never thought this would end up being a single. This song took the longest to finish of all the album tracks - it originally was like a krautrock-esque ten-minute epic of cascading repetition and delay, but it somehow turned into a tasty slice of pop-pumpkin pie with the help of some strange violin stabs and some retarded synthesisers at the end. Oh, and it was named after this awesome band we know.

‘Insects’ - This is one of our slower, more dense numbers; slightly more well behaved, less puerile, quite heavy, not quite doom though but heavy enough. I'm a fan of the call and response vocals from Rachel and Gemma, plus it's got some tasty clicky-rim drum bullshit.

‘Taxidermy’ - This was our first single - this album version is quite a different recording though, as the original was just a band practise recording and had a ton of energy and snottiness. I hate re-recording stuff - I think it destroys the integrity of what the song originally was when it was fresh. In a perfect world songs would be written, practised for long enough so that you can make it though to the end without having to stop, and recorded before you've got too comfy in your boots. However, this version turned out pretty good - it's the oldest songs on the album and I’m glad it hung in there and made the record.

‘Spayed’ - We had this random violin thing I recorded hanging around for a while, we ended up putting it on a sampler, effecting it with some delay/reverb et cetera, then Rachel triggered it with a stick while singing at the same time. It was quite freeform - we had bits but no structure as such, and it just kind of came together as we recorded it live. It's a more drone-y, dirge-y, beast of a song, a sound similar to an old track called 'Elevator' we recorded a while back. We're big fans of this song and we'd happily write more songs that sound like this. Also I'm not sure what the lyrics are about but apparently it’s pretty deep, so listen closely and have your soul cleansed.

‘K.R.I.H.’ - The second oldest song on the album, written when we were all very new at playing with each other and were still not quite sure what we were trying to do. It starts off with a quasi-Melvins riff and turns into some kinda of driving Sonic-Youth-y keg party at the end.

‘Don't Hit The Bottom’ - A slightly different-sounding song, which our label described as sounding a bit John McGeoch-era Siouxsie and the Banshees, which isn't a bad thing and not toooo far off the mark. We've been compared to the Banshees a few times in the past which I generally think is a pretty sloppy comparison, but acceptable in this case. It's slightly epic (a dirty word) and more complicated than a lot of our songs, while at the same time still being quite upbeat. There's even a piano or two in there and with it being close to being a mammoth four minutes it's like our ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.

‘Bone You’ - First song on side two (remember side two?), which is currently an imaginary side as the vinyl still needs to be etched and sent to the factory. Probably the most hectic and chaotic sounding song. Our second single: fun, puerile, with a slight tinge of exotica.

‘Trenchfoot’ - this was originally titled 'Christopher Robin' and then 'Armies of the Watchtower', but we decided this sounded a tad too Lord of the Rings/apocalyptic Jimi Hendrix. We stuck with the war theme though when we chose ‘Trenchfoot’. It starts slow then there's one long build up to a speed chaos chariot-riding climax. We still can't play this song properly.

‘Siren Sister’ - We originally released this as the B-side of our first single - a bad mistake as we didn't want to put a B-side on the record as it's our best song, we disrespected it by relegating to B-side status. I also like the way the title sounds like it was named after the town Cirencester.

‘Mackerel Sky’ - I really like this song too, but although we recorded it live I'm not sure we've ever managed to capture it as well as when we play it live (we recorded this song previously, too). I like it more than the original basement recording, though. It's got some chunky bits in it.

‘Toil and Trouble’ - ‘Mackerel Sky’ and ‘Toil and Trouble’ are one song really, as we normally play them together live. It was separated from its twin on our EP but we kindly reunited it with its other half on the album. It's kind of like our original menacing and dirgy statement of intent. Again, this is a live favourite for us, and I could quite happily play that same guitar line for ten minutes… although I play the guitar at the end of this song like fat-fingered pillock, slap-dash, but maybe that's the point. I think I might prefer the original, I dunno. Good marauding bassline on this one.

‘Murmur’ - We wrote this song in half an hour the night before we recorded it, and along with ‘Siren Sister’ and ‘Spayed’ it turned out to be one of our favourites. It's a really complete sounding and together song. We even managed to put a reggae beat in it without it sounding shit… I know that doesn't sound good on paper!

Too right it doesn’t… but if much of the above appeals, get yourself a free download of ‘Male Bonding’ below and find KASMS on MySpace HERE.

DOWNLOAD: ‘MALE BONDING’

KASMS will support The Gossip on the following dates:

May
27 Brighton Digital
28 London Scala
29 Manchester Club Academy
30 Glasgow Arches

Click here to buy tickets for KASMs