The Breakdown
The Brighton music makers Opus Kink have released the follow-up to their debut EP ‘Til The Stream Runs Dry‘, with the doubly impressive ‘My Eyes, Brother!’
Speaking ahead of their EP release, frontman Angus Rogers stated:
“Our new EP ‘My Eyes, Brother!’ is a loose collection of dream and nightmare sequences. The narrators, proudly unreliable, don their various faces with much bad taste. The bad friend, serial progenitor, shame-wracked voluntary celibate and love-wracked ex-pimp are reading Ecclesiastes on Goodreads together. Their tummies are funny. They are asking themselves, as we ask our own selves: how to defecate up the walls, find our reflections in car windows, stop to tongue-kiss those reflections, run away in grief, break our teeth on a handrail, crawl home to a locked door and somehow still feel sexy?”
‘Chains’ Electronic dubstep funk and shimmering guitars announce this EP as something a little special from this very special band indeed. I have made no secret of my love for lead man Angus Rogers. His sneering vitriol-loaded vocals lash and snake through the track of Buena Vista horns and gang mentality.
The first single ‘Dust’ is a bad acid trip teetering on paranoia induced nightmare with blaring brass and manic percussion that slips into some early morning disco hell. Straight into another single ‘Children’ is a delusional hit of disco psyche madness tamed by Rogers drunkenly in charge below. These guys embody the sentiment of us against the world.
‘Malarkey’ starts with 40 seconds of older worldly pub piano intro ‘Tin Of Piss’. As the tinkling fades out victorian gothic bass of Sam Abbo creeps in as Rogers lays down his seductive storytelling vocals of love and death. Even Fin Abbo adds to the sinister mix as he swaps sticks for lengths of chains and bells. It’s also a great track to point out Rogers other gift to the band, his guitar skills. He dips in and out adding textures to each track or going full psycho all down to what the track dictates. There’s no egos in this band just a collective of musicians who but the song before anything else.
A punk flourish and the chunky organ sounds of Jazz Pope bring in ‘Piping Angels’, a double time unhinged asylum soundtrack as Rogers screeches and screams as he veers from one drugged up inmate to the next. There isn’t a drum left untouched on Abbo’s kit just like there isn’t any air left in Jack Banjo Courtney’s (trumpet), Jed Morgans’s (saxophone) lungs. A masterclass in noise making.
Ending with the single ‘1:18’ late night jazz lounge of red eyes and thick tongues that builds with a swirling intensity as the band gathers once again to shout and curse at the world. This is music to lose a lifetime too or at the very least several brain cells.
A lot has been said of the bands ability to merge and spline genres together all wrapped in a punk attitude but not a lot is said about the difficulty of doing that and making it sound as good as these guys do. This is such a strong second EP that takes what the first did well and makes it better. The songwriting, the inventiveness and, let us be honest, musical genius shines very bright indeed.
Check out the bands track Dust, below:
Find out more via the bands Facebook or Bandcamp
Read our interview with the band here
Live Dates
19th May – Band On The Wall, Manchester
20th May – King Tuts, Glasgow
21st May – ZEROX, Newcastle
23rd May – Village Underground, London
26th May – Bearded Theory Festival, Derby
27th May – Live At Leeds In The Park
27th May – Dot to Dot Festival, Bristol
28th May – Dot To Dot Festival, Nottingham
1st June – Bedford Esquires, Bedford
2nd June – Patterns, Brighton
9th June – Music Barn Festival, Kettering
10th June – Long Division Festival, Wakefield
21st July – Truck Festival, Oxford
11th August – Stockton, Ku Bar
16th August – Tunbridge Wells, Forum
17th August – Newport, Le Pub
18th August – Exeter, Cavern
19th August – Margate, Where else
20th August – St Albans, The Horn
2nd December – Cambridge, Mash
3rd December – Hull, Polar Bear
5th December – Sheffield, Yellow Arch
6th December – Leeds, Brudenell Social Club
7th December – Nottingham, Bodega
8th December – Bristol, Thekla
9th December – Southampton, The Loft
10th December – Oxford, The Bullingdon
12th December – Brighton, Concorde 2
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