We’ve mentioned that new releases are slowing up as we approach the end of the year, but of course I’d briefly forgotten about This Heel, who produce new material with frightening, if always welcomed regularity.
This time it’s an EP entitled ‘Holes in the Primary World’, a healthy 5 tracks from the band based around the talents of Swedish musician Martin Månsson Sjöstrand, who we’ve also featured under his instrumental trio of the same name and the wonderful Dog Paper Submarine, which popped up on my Spotify releases of ‘most listened to’ bands of the year. Along with Major Parkinson and Gypsy Chicken – no surprises there then.
In This Heel he is joined by Anton Linderoth on drums and guitar, and Linus Lindvall on bass, guitar and vocals, and whilst ‘Holes in the Primary World’ doesn’t head off quite in the leftfield direction of previous singles we’ve featured, it’s an entertaining 12 minutes of guitar noise power pop, melodies and curious lyrics. There’s never a dull moment.
‘Alien Ashtray’ opens with less than 2 minutes of high energy frenetic tunes, whilst unusually ‘Box on a Rooftop’ slows things down and almost shows a subtle side of the band, before the inevitable crescendo in the chorus and a slightly unconventional ending. ‘Encrypted Honesty’ is typically ‘This Heel’ and I love the short instrumental section, which is always a feature of their music – albeit not quite as prevalent as some releases I’ve heard from the band.
The highlight of the EP to me is ‘An Ocean of Winding Figures’ with a simply lovely melody in the chorus, a hefty loud change in musical direction and lyrics which I’m not quite sure I understand but still love nevertheless. “Beat out the secret worlds, give me an exorcism. And I will try to embrace the ordinary”. Interesting, pretty much with you there. “And grow back the singing tree”. Nope, totally lost you now.
It concludes with the equally fascinating ‘Pebbles’, where we’re posed questions which almost become Spike Milligan like in their word play: “Would you rather wanna be a headless fly? Safe in the spider’s web or explode in confusion’s bed? A bumblebee playing with fire or a humble tree giving away leaf by leaf? I haven’t quite worked out whether it’s poetic brilliance or complete nonsense, but the truth is probably somewhere between the two.
Anyway I always love some This Heel, and the good news is that it’s only December 8th, so we look forward to the Christmas single and the traditional Bing Crosby Yuletide Covers EP.
Find them on Facebook.