In years to come this decade will fail to hold up as being a good one for British guitar music. Yes, we’ve had Glasvegas, the occasional glimmer of greatness from Bloc Party, the return of Morrissey, one good album by Arctic Monkeys and the ubiquitous Radiohead with two great albums and two ok ones. They are all eclipsed by the lackadaisical approach of acts that are little better than pub bands. Bands so unimaginative that they would make the guitar sludge of the Stereophonics sound like Kraftwerk singing the back catalogue of Neu! in Lithuanian. Bands that non-music fans who listen to Chris Moyles pick up on and begin their inexplicable onslaught on the UK pop charts.
Bands such as The Libertines, Snow Patrol, The View, The Fratellis and endless other bands all lack longevity, creativity and are bereft of any musical integrity. What about Elbow you say? Well, what about them? If you wanted earnest love songs that are a bit dreary then why not plunge into the late 70’s output of Genesis, it sounds the same; it’ll be cheaper and much more entertaining.
There are green shoots of recovery; The Horrors have amazed with what should have been the winner of this Year’s Mercury with their second album ‘Primary Colours’ and are now an exciting prospect for British music and with new London band, O. Children, we have their kindred spirits in sound, skinny jeans and indie boy posturing.
After making slight rumblings in the mid noughties with a band impressive in name only; Bono Must Die, who were killed off themselves either by a lawsuit by Bono himself or the embarrassing endorsement of one of Bob Geldof’s inconsequential offspring. O. Children (named after a Nick Cave song), formed from their split just over a year ago are now gearing up to take the indie dance floors by storm.
The recently released debut single ‘Dead Disco Dancer’ gets the biggest cheer from the Shoreditch crowd and with good reason, the track is a revelation. Surf guitar twangs go up against Bahaus-esque gothic rock and Tobi’s deep baritone growl gives it a nonchalant air which is irresistible. ‘Ace Breasts’ is a song so seeped in the 80s it’s almost like o.d-ing on Quatro and Pez sweets while listening to Killing Joke at their most overblown. Other songs in their set imagine Ian Curtis fronting Gang of Four whilst others are Cramps-esque with extra spikes and a sting in their tale. One song interprets Don Henley’s ‘Boys of Summer’ after sucking on a crack pipe and they even manage to pull off an off the cuff cover of Prince’s ‘Purple Rain’ classic ‘I would die for u’ which works brilliantly as a neo gothic disco dirge.
As unoriginal as all this may seem, 6ft 8” front man Tobi Kandi is an overbearing and genuinely unsettling front man whose insolent glare is straight out of the book of indie but he rules the stage by taking moodiness to another level while the rest of the band stalk around the stage looking sulky and disaffected, the only thing to do is to drink their measured misery up in a post punk, new wave and indie disco primordial soup.
Although it’s as much as a cliché for a band to hold their love of Joy Division this high up for all to see than it is for journalists to mention it, we may finally have our own copyists good enough to rival Interpol, Editors haven’t “heard of them” remember….and are rubbish.
These are early days, it’s impossible to gauge whether O.Children will be as revelatory as Interpol or a three and a half minute blip on the musical history of this decade ala New York fakers The Bravery, but on tonight’s evidence they look as though they have more than enough songs to be able to pull off great things, the first essential band of the next decade?
Words by Chris todd
