In the event you’ve turned on BBC 6Music in the previous couple of years, you’ll have in all probability heard lots of speaking; not the DJs, however somewhat the prevailing tide of sprechgesang in trendy indie. Arguably beginning with The Fall and The Flying Lizards, it was carried on by Pulp, Earl Brutus, Life With out Buildings after which The Streets, and is now flooding our airwaves. It is available in many kinds: there are the fashionable pioneers like Sleaford Mods and Courtney Barnett, the cartoony post-punk of IDLES and Yard Act, the infectious Moist Leg and Self Esteem, the peerless Fontaines D.C. and Black Nation, New Street.
London’s Dry Cleansing are additionally in that clan, however their releases to date – a handful of EPs and final yr’s New Lengthy Leg LP – have offered a gaggle that’s totally fashioned and strikingly distinctive. Musically, they flit impressively between Sabbath riffs, Smiths sophistication and dreampop haziness, with Tom Dowse’s guitar normally soaked in refrain and phaser, Lewis Maynard’s bass enjoying chunky chords and riffs, and drummer Nick Buxton alternately powering and atmospheric.
Above all this, although – metaphorically, but in addition within the combine – is Florence Shaw, her supply as informal as a dialog in a espresso store, the mundanity of her collaged phrases including as much as one thing unusually transferring, generally unhappy and infrequently hilarious. “Somebody pissed on my leg within the massive Sainsbury’s”, goes one line on New Lengthy Leg’s “John Wick”, whereas the identical track additionally particulars what went improper with the Antiques Roadshow’s current revamp. “The rationale the worth reveals had been so good,” she says, doubletracked, “is as a result of we needed to await them”.
After recording New Lengthy Leg with John Parish at Rockfield, they’ve returned to the identical producer and studio for Stumpwork. It’s a type of second albums that doc a gaggle exploding out in all instructions: they get shorter, snappier and extra melodic on some songs, longer and weirder on others.
“Don’t Press Me” appeared first, a sub-two-minute burst of jangling post-punk, Shaw imploring a “rat” to not contact her “gaming mouse”. Its refrain, for as soon as, is sung, and although it’s maybe the catchiest Dry Cleansing second to date, it solely seems as soon as within the track. Equally, “Gary Ashby” options singing, however is hooked round Shaw’s traditional spoken phrases. She tends in direction of the summary and the obtuse, however right here she tells a extra easy story of a misplaced tortoise, the titular Gary: “We gave you our household title / Within the lockdown you escaped”. It’s not autobiographical, however the particulars are foolish and poignant in the best way actual life usually is: “Have you ever seen Gary? / Along with his tinfoil ball/He used to like to kick it along with his stumpy legs”. “Kwenchy Kups” is one other up-tempo spotlight, suffused with Marr lushness and a killer opening line: “Issues are shit, however they’re gonna be OK…”
Elsewhere, Dry Cleansing stretch out and embrace dubby area, improvisation and synths. Oozing five-minute opener “Anna Calls From The Arctic” begins with a optimistic “shall I suggest friendship?” over two consistently biking keyboard chords and saxophone, after which strikes on to the North Pole: “It’s both scientists / Or people who find themselves mining / Or canine sledge folks”. Inside Shaw’s seemingly disjointed, absurdist textual content, nevertheless, extra significant contrasts emerge, corresponding to these strains, completely encapsulating the UK in 2022: “Nothing works / Every little thing’s costly / And opaque and privatised / My shoe organising factor arrived / Thank God”.
Musically, there are equally courageous juxtapositions. “Conservative Hell” mixes jazzy drums with shoegaze guitars, earlier than it falls aside for a hauntological second half full with feedbacking delay and sax, whereas “Liberty Log” is seven minutes of unhinged saggy, its funky Mondays drums strafed by Fripp-style guitar drones. “Bizarre premise”, repeats Shaw, as if she’s commenting instantly on the music.
If the music and lyrics are each spectacular, although, it’s the interplay between them that makes Stumpwork such a triumph. They work collectively and towards one another, pushing and pulling, preventing arrhythmically or slipping into step because the second calls for. The phrases really feel natural, delivered as in the event that they’re being learn out of a pocket book, or relayed straight from a practice, pub or physician’s surgical procedure – “I’m not right here to supply clean / They will fucking present clean… Are these uncovered wires all good, close to the steam?” goes “Scorching Penny Day” – however this air of effortlessness is the type that requires an excessive amount of work and instinct.
Whereas Stumpwork’s divisive paintings betrays their art-school and illustration backgrounds, in some ways the music does too, enriched with the humour and playfulness of Pulp, Blur or Roxy Music, all teams not afraid to dabble with a little bit of spoken phrase. Right here, Dry Cleansing have struck out on their very own, combining the mess of the on a regular basis – male violence, fitness center shorts, damaged Kindles, Costa cups, good weddings and unhealthy weddings – into one thing deep, humorous and finally profound. All people’s speaking, however no person’s saying something fairly like this.
