Roadkill Records signing Muertos grabbed our attention last year with “gloriously catchy” ‘Spin’.
Now, they’re gearing up to release an album, ‘Suck It Up’ (pre-order LINK). The title track of It opens with a sultry riff, before the fuzz pedals get stepped on and the resolute drums kick in. There are shades of post-‘Psychocandy’ Jesus and the Mary Chain and, in the dual male/female vocals, groups like The Kills.
Muertos is Spanish for ‘Dead’, and the group has professed an interest in freakbeat and garage psych, or at least the murkier depths of those two genres which can sometimes tend towards pastiche. Not here though, on this gloomy but dynamic number.
London is their nexus, but De Avis hails from Querétaro, Mexico, and songwriting partner Crane from Essex. There’s a smidgen of Day of the Dead imagery and estuarine eeriness in their output, and also in Crane’s artwork, that gives them a distinctive edge.
The video for ‘Suck It Up’ sees Avis, Crane and drummer Tom Lewis construct piñatas of themselves and destroy them in a patch of woodland, but not before they’ve taken the bus with them and dragged them through Basildon.
Even without the storming soundtrack, it would be quite a compulsive piece of performance art.
Watch it below:
‘Suck It Up’ is set to be launched on August 24th at The Shacklewell Arms.
Words: Wilf Skinner
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