Andy Wors
This Heel šøšŖ - Invisible Space (EP)

I wrote about the new album by Swedish indie band Blod yesterday, which I liked, but it did take some getting into, so today Iāll feature This Heel, who I always find a really easy, enjoyable listen - their EP āInvisible Spaceā was released towards the end of last year.
Iāve written about them before, theyāre the project based around musician Martin Sjƶstrand, who was also part of the excellent Dog, Paper, Submarine project that ended a couple of years ago. This Heel to an extent previously had āthe scrapsā of unused DPS material, but is now the main vehicle for the musician, who churns out songs almost as frequently as Boris Johnson lies about parties he's attended.
I hinted that this EP would have quicker appeal, but actually opening title track āInvisible Spaceā does take a while to get going, but once it does itās just a delight, with a mesmerising tune that makes me think Iām lost in a fairground being chased by Pac-Man ghosts. Lyrically of course it suggests nothing of the sort, but his words always need some study to fully understand them: āWhen you fall down all youāll see, molecules, the chemistry. Reformation, defragmentation, the light of reincarnationā, which sounds dark yet is all sung on repeat with almost joyous abandonment.
Anyway with that weāre off, as Sjƶstrand launches into a more typical style This Heel track, as āHead / Tailā is 2 minutes of Pixies style fuzzy rock, of course with the inevitable slightly warped middle section. āCave Boy (Blow the Flower a Kissā) is another great example, a frenetic cacophony of guitars that build to a catchy chorus albeit this time there is far less of a leftfield diversion along the way.
The stripped back acoustic backdrop of āGutted Angelā and opening of āThe Humā allow time to contemplate the joyous nonsense and sense that is This Heel lyrics, in particular the former with the words āThe gutted angelās soul, stolen by the world. Babies in the dollar store. An ant on a dinosaurā. And then leading to the chorus, āDonāt be around that ghost. Wheels will crush youā. I remain defeated in my attempts to fully understand this one I admit.
To be honest itās not always easy to describe This Heelās music either, so for the last track try an experiment involving hopping on the spot for 3 minutes. At first youāll feel secure and steady in the centre of that spot, but over the next 180 seconds youāll slowly find yourself hopping further away from the middle point until youāre doing a frantic one legged dance all over the room, occasionally crashing into tables, chairs and perhaps a cat, before somehow ending up in a heap on the floor in the same place as you started. And thatās the track āWarped Battery Muffinā.
I guess the point Iām trying to make is that this is just really entertaining music. Itās lo-fi, deliberately chaotic, even hit or miss at times, but each song always has a feeling that itās written, performed and to be listened to with a smile on everyoneās faces. In the midst of it all thereās moments of utter brilliance where momentarily music and life makes total sense, before both disappear in the polar opposite direction again. Iām sure it wonāt be long before weāre offered some more This Heel material and itās always welcomed.
Find them on Instagram or Bandcamp.