Though it's often the case for a band to release an album before they're ready, it's taken three years for Leeds' Love Buzzard to finally unleash their debut. Often such a time frame yields a refined end product, but it's difficult to use such a word anywhere near 'Antifistimines'. That doesn't mean to say it's a bad record. Quite the opposite. It is however, a record of staggering rawness, breakneck pacing and an almost gleeful disregard for convention. As such, those three years haven't been spent refining their sound, as much as they have contorting it in to something quite the opposite.
Calamitous drums, buzz-saw guitars and piercing vocals all feature predominately, creating a genre-bending cacophony of '60s psych and garage rock that not only prides itself on its sleaziness, but relishes in it, all the while keeping tongues planted firmly in cheek.
'Heaven's Got An Electric Fence' for instance, begins with a bluesy bass and lead guitar, before being enveloped in the same corrosive fuzz that's lavished across each track without exception. 'Creep And Crawl' follows a similar blues-driven direction, but it's the skittish and spasmodic garage punk of cuts such as 'Headrush' and 'Lines' in which 'Antifistimines' really comes in to its own; the bite and snarl of the band's earlier releases really coming to the fore.
The vinyl release of the record also features a handful of bonus tracks, including the recently premièred 'Oh', a snarling swaggering 90-second explosion. These tracks do little to strengthen the overall record, and arguably are even rawer, but they're a nice touch for vinyl enthusiasts.
It might have taken them three years to get here, but with their debut LP, Love Buzzard have created a cathartic tour-de-force that grabs listeners within seconds and doesn't relent until it's conclusion half an hour later.
8/10
Words: Dave Beech
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