(5-track EP/ 2002/ 'PEANUT RECORDS')
Bring on the Brazen Hussies, they're amazing - not pussies. Charismatically fronted by nutter Dave Queen (he is a man), this stonking 5-track EP is an eccentric, unbelievably awesome jaunt down a crookedly bizarre back alley of alternative rock 'n' roll. The song titles are enough to bemuse, and while the weird 'Crawfish' isn't really that weird, the remaining four tracks are. Tremendously bassy throughout courtesy of Lunch (another man I presume), 'Crawfish' - with its 'Don't make a fuss, stay inconspicuous� the world doesn't need you' advice - trials a backing vocal style that remind of backing vox on Bowie records, purposefully off-kilter and engrossing.
The Hussies' hugely original sounds are yet more forthcoming further on in, as Vittima Colpavole's Electro-spasms contribute to the resulting panorama of noisy chaos, this band brazenly sounding like a madcap B-52's tribute. 'Sleep It Off' is the straightest song, wailing with its fast punk beat and Dave Q's spasmodic guitar therapy� and then the frantic arrangement dips from cool punk-rock into an introspective and eccentric lull of Emo-angst, as Dave's vox bizarrely strain to remind of Marilyn Manson.
Who'd have thought? Who'd have thought indeed that 'Fee Bee' would then be a funky pop musical interlude of glorious sampled insanity that bounces along happily. Until that is the music takes a skewed turn into darker territory as a music box melody, violins and a twisted scratch of a beat drags 'Fee Bee' agonisingly out to the 7-minute mark exact.
But wait around, because the closing track - 'Decathexis' - is just Dave on piano, crooning in his own distinct aura of twisted genius, as the world around spins, and the chunky Mclusky-esque guitar riffs of this band's most rocky moments seem a distant memory.
The Brazen Hussies sound, from this CD alone, to be a hugely important band. They're talented, and they're different� and they deserve recognition. (STEVE RUDD)
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