Brighton punks Self Torque have revealed a further taster from their forthcoming debut album, the release of which is imminent. ‘High Temperature Serpent’ is a high octane ride of a song, inspired by San Diego garage rock with a tinge of old-school hardcore and it’s out today via Sugar-Free Records, complete with accompanying music video. Vocalist and guitarist Gabriel MacKenzie says: “The idea behind this song was just to be heavy all the way through without any “nice” bits. A reflection of the subject matter. This is a character assassination of the worst person you know. You want everyone to know how much they suck because they are so good at playing everyone.”
Self Torque’s debut album is titled ‘A Brutal Nadir’ is set for release 30th Jan via Brighton indie Sugar-Free Records. The collection of tracks really wears its heart on its metaphorical sleeve. It was recorded at Brighton Electric, produced and mixed by Mark Roberts (Black Peaks, Jamie Lenman), with additional engineering by Alex Gordon (The Cure, Tigercub).
‘A Brutal Nadir’ also features the recently released spaghetti western vibes of ‘Del Shannon’ (complete with trumpet solo), album opener ‘Wicker Incident’, which lyrically “sets the tone for the record. One of self reflection. Looking back and inwards. It’s about how the understanding of childhood experiences can change with age. How other people remember a situation and how that can inform your own narrative.” Self Torque kicked off this cycle of music with lead single ‘(All The Things I) Wannabe’, whose manifesting writing process found Gabriel “listening to Californian garage and dreaming about being somewhere else and someone else.”
Self Torque emerged onto the Brighton DIY punk scene out of the ashes of various bands Gabriel had been a part of. The trio of musicians assembled for the project (completed by Luke Ellis on drums and Jay Cross on bass) are battle-hardened punk scene fixtures so it’s no surprise that Self Torque are already making a name for themselves with their supremely locked-in live shows.
Gabriel sings with an almost desperate passion and a first-take keep-it-in-the-red urgency, delivering sombre, un-varnished truths, wrapped around distress-cracked melodies. The energy of the moment, the artistry of the composition, and the obnoxious courage of the message are all intertwined like a strand of DNA.
At the heart of this project, there’s a tug of war between two equally powerful opposing tendencies; on the one hand is a weary resignation, a brokenness, sketches of late-capitalist ennui and sorrow distilled and occasionally unleashed in the nihilistic frequencies of Gabriel’s banshee screams. As its opponent, is a Darwinian primal survival instinct, a will to live. This essential compulsion to keep fighting is buttressed by a conscious and active force, intellectual fortitude, pride, that real hard-to-pin-down stuff of substance and strength which in these powerful songs feels reminiscent or familial to that small, stubborn voice, surely inside every person’s cranium whispering “Keep going! Push on!” with a cloaked determination.
Sometimes Self Torque trade in the sort of overblown, melodramatic fuzz-laden pop-punk that Weezer made their stock-in-trade for decades. Pop sensibilities wrangle with a primitive approach akin to the first wave pop-punk bands like Buzzocks and Stiff Little Fingers. Also imbibed in the band’s sound is a garage punk energy reminiscent, at times, of bands like Hot Snakes, Young Livers, Rocket From The Crypt. You can see them live, in the flesh at Sugar-Free Records’ Birthday Party in Brighton on 24 Jan, and at Manchester Punk Festival in April, amongst various other dates – details below.
SEE SELF TORQUE LIVE:
24 Jan The Hope & Ruin, Brighton – Sugar-Free Records Birthday party
06 Feb New River Studios, London – with Jay Cavalier and the Band
07 Feb The Library, Oxford – with Jay Cavalier and the Band
08 Feb The Hobbit, Southampton – with Jay Cavalier and the Band
03-05 April Manchester Punk Festival
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