We’ve reviewed 9 o’clock Nasty before, so we were thrilled to see them come to the top of the reviews pile today. “Music, good times, nasty times & pigeon related humour” is their Twitter handle and we love that these guys don’t take themselves too seriously.
We’re, again, not quite sure what to make of their latest single, Darker Star. We previously listened to Playboy Driver a few months back and fondly recall it being somewhat annoyingly catchy! Darker Star is no different in that it is a relentless wall of sound, with shouty vocals but damnit, it’s so catchy!
The song fools you at the start with some gentle nature sounds and we all looked at each other asking if we were sure there wasn’t another band called 9 o’clock Nasty! But no… here comes some first responder sirens, a little percussion and a repeated guitar riff that gets right under your skin.
As the song progresses, you know where you stand with this band. We’re pretty sure they’re not aiming for world domination of the music scene, but they are most definitely in this for the fun of it.
There’s a fun breakdown in the middle of the song with a few sirens and that repeated guitar riff that is now stuck in our heads for all time. The break down builds until you’re back into a double chorus to end, and then a sort of stinger ending with some more calming nature sounds to end the track.
It would have been cool to have a little more variation in the second chorus at the end, but those guitar riffs seem to carry the track well enough to forgive the lack of variety.
Our production suggestions for this track are the same as the previous one we reviewed. We guess it was probably recorded and mastered at the same time. A little more stereo in the track, either from panning or from effects, would be nice for future recordings as well as a pretty big boost of the vocals in the top end. Currently the only track poking through in the top end is the tambourine. A little more top in the vocals will give them some extra clarity.
Darker Star is a brash, bold and punk influenced track. It’s a track that is unapologetically rough around the edges and that, exactly that, is what makes it so charming.