Crocodiles- Summer of Hate
9/10

Another from the school of love-them-or-hate-them lo-fi, the crusty punk duo of Crocodiles proved themselves with their dirty-sounding but perfectly succinct ‘Neon Jesus’/ ‘Neon Autobahn’ 7”. Now with the long playing Summer of Hate they expand on their almost droney-noise/pop with nine lo-fi pop/punk songs in the vein of a dodgier Talking Heads or sewer-dwelling Beach Boys. Starting off with a warped tape loop and seguing into the tryptich radio single ‘I Wanna Kill’, every song shimmies with original post punk bliss. ‘Soft Skull (In My Room)’ inhabits a dusty corner of a basement, with a startlingly clear, fuzzed-out bass that could have been taken from Radiohead’s or (dare I say) Muse’s back catalog. Scarcely used effects sharpen the edges and brighten the corners of these square, slightly funky, but very fresh sounding songs. The shoegazey psychedelia of ‘Here Comes The Sky’ opens the record up to a whole new sound, level and way of thinking, beautiful in its simplicity, I’m surprised more bands don’t try this breezy, atmospheric approach. Then into the bouncy ‘Refuse Angels’ with feedback and full-fuzz vibe, it seems evident now that here’s another band that Evermore might’ve been emulating. Brit Pop-sounding cleaner guitar merges with intensely distorted drone. Imbuing that post-college party vibe – not with frat kids, more like the normal kids who had feelings and heart and ingenuity – Crocodiles may initially come across as a too-cool hype band, all hipster-imagery and abstract animal-referencing, but backwards tunes like ‘Flash of Light’ that disintegrates into sharp, biting noise and melts into the trippy ‘Sleeping With The Lord’ are really awakening, shining a light on different techniques and ideas, ones that these two bring to the forefront with positive ease. ‘Young Drugs’ is the perfect ending song, pulsing, hypnotic rainbows of synth and guitar gliding over a choppy beat. Summer of Hate is a highly impressive debut, one that’ll be super exciting to see enacted live come their NZ shows.
Sarah

Posted by Sarah Gooding under Album, Reviews