Review: Louse ‘Creep Call’
In the single-note riff-bludgeon department comes Creep Call, the debut album from Newcastle upon Tyne’s Louse, who share both members, and some sonic sensibilities with Leeds very own The Shits, as well as the insanely named Foot Hair, and like The Shits, Louse proffer a loose, repetitive, dirty, feral take on The Stooges-style garage punk rock which, while not for the faint of heart, comes across as both pretty cool and unique.
The band wastes zero time getting to business as the filthy, punk riffage of Worm burrows itself into the listener’s consciousness. However, the dueling guitars of the also well-named duo of Septic Pete and The King Of String add just the tiniest bit of melody with some rock and roll lead action that it keeps the listener on their toes. After a wall of distortion and guitar squalls comes the aural bludgeoning of Suffer, as Louse ride an up-tempo punk riff and driving rhythms to the bitter end, as vocalist, The Captain, unleashes distorted and damaged howling over the top, that I couldn’t decipher even if his vox were isolated.
Material boasts a filthy, garage punk main riff and a pummeling mid-tempo rhythm attack that reminds me of The Murder City Devils classic Cradle To The Grave for some reason. It’s hard to overstate just how warped and damaged sounding Louse’s take on rock and roll is, and Material is as good an example of that as any track on Creep Call. Moving forward, You Don’t Eat The Bull owns a very real and very killer rock and roll swing, with a hammering, sleazy, punk rock main riff that’s propelled by this chaotic, yet tight as hell rhythm section of drummer Mister P and Dieta De Patate on the chest-rumbling slide bass.
Speaking of De Patate, his thundering, ass-shaking, fuzzy bass riff that opens Phrogging, a head nodding track if there ever was one and had me moving every time I heard it, is as noisy as any of the legendary nineties noise-rock bands on Amphetamine Reptile Records, but if they were locked in a room for a week with nothing but the first two The Stooges records on repeat. In fact, this whole track for me feels like some un-earthed, hip-shaking, The Jeus Lizard number, if only the entire band were playing through walls of distortion with the inclusion of some The Stooges-style, one-note keyboard bashing.
a depressive yet epic, nihilistic rock and roll dirge…
Wishlist/Slave Morality takes on a more somber tone and tempo with its grimy, creepy crawl feelings and fucked-up nod. The Captain’s screeds sound like distorted screeches from a mental patient locked in the basement of an ancient psych ward. The rest of Louse ride these bad vibes with the result being a depressive yet epic, nihilistic rock and roll dirge that is blasted into the listener’s mind for an insane six-plus minutes, the end result being a cathartic, uneasy, yet awesome listening experience and is certainly the most epic track on Creep Call.
Camel Blue is a fast-paced, downstroke, grime-fest, that’s sequenced well following Wishlist/Slave Morality, whilst Wet Work sees the band getting back into heavy, nineties noisy, garage rock with the hip-shaking thunder from De Patate’s bass anchoring the whole thing down, while closer The Good Life presents a particularly nasty riff, displayed simultaneously with walls of noise, again aptly held down by this next-level rhythm section.
I enjoyed Creep Call quite a bit, finding it all at once unsettling, loose, filthy, untamed, distorted and fucked up, but most of all rocking, creative and unique. If you’re in the mood for a mangled, repetitive, garage, punk rock beat down, then Creep Call will undoubtedly scratch that itch.
Label: Riot Season
Band Links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram
Scribed by: Martin Williams
