Zsa Zsa Sapien at the national Portrait Gallery 19th August 2016, by your humble author
As recording sessions continue for the follow up to 2015's 'HiFi Classics', Meatraffle return with the excellent 'Brother', a limited edition 7" via the Moshi Moshi Singles Club and a song I saw them perform 10 months ago as part of their set at the National Portrait Gallery. Whenever I post about Meatraffle, I include a link to that tremendous debut LP and do so again today, without apology. Please check it out, if you haven't done so already. It's good for what ails you.
The mighty Zsa Zsa Sapien of Meatraffle. A photo taken by your humble author.
Firm favourites of this manor, Meatraffle are currently on the hunt for a label to distribute their new LP 'The 1917', pencilled in for a Summer release. Meantime, they've let slip 'Serve & Obey', which features a sublimely chosen 'Silly Games' sample, narration from Fat White Family's Patrick Lyons and the mournful horn of Zsa Zsa Sapien.
As anyone who's paid even the slightest attention to my ramblings will know, I've got a bit of a thing for Meatraffle. I initially wrote about the band here and have subsequently featured their latest LP, 'HiFi Classics', over on my 'heavy rotation' sidebar on more than one occasion. While down in London on family business over the weekend, I was extremely chuffed to discover that Meatraffle had been invited to play a show at The National Portrait Gallery as part of its Creative Connections season. The high ceiling and cold walls of the room caused the band a few sound-related headaches early on, though these were quickly overcome and soon their dubby post-punk grooves were echoing through the old building. Meatraffle make a unique noise and they're very rapidly becoming my favourite band in the land. If you haven't done so already, do yourself a favour and check out the album here.
A small handful of 2015 albums found their way into my collection during the second half of December,
too late for me to make an impartial judgement vis-a-vis their inclusion in my year end round-up.
One of those albums was 'HiFi Classics' by Meatraffle, which, given a little more time to absorb it,
would've made my 2015 top 20 without question. For starters, how can you fail to love a band who's
line-up includes among its membership; Fats McCourt, Tingle Lungfish, Zsa Zsa Sapien and Cloudy Truffles?
The genre descriptors that the band give their music are equally inventive, if not especially helpful;
Trapdoor Jazz anyone? Speed Waltz? Or perhaps a little Erroneous Funk?
To give you at least some idea of what we're actually dealing with here, a few of the reference points that came to mind as I began to immerse myself in 'HiFi Classics' were; 'The Return of the Giant Slits',
'Bon Chic Bon Genre' by Campag Velocet, 'Pigeonhole' by New Fast Automatic Daffodils and 'Accept the Signal' by Regular Fries. Chuck that lot into a blender and you'll be heading in the vague direction of the uniquely wonky, cock-eyed view of pop that is
Meatraffle's.
'Aurora' and 'The Horseshoe' are currently on particularly heavy rotation round these parts. If you like these, I urge you to check out 'HiFi Classics' in full here. It's a blinder.
