BELEF Festival, Belgrade, Serbia - July 2011
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Here's a great
short film of the Loins' recent appearance at the BELEF festival
in Belgrade.
Cheers to Katarina & Nikola at BELEF for making it. |
HOUSE IN THE WOODS
Shout4Music - Reviewed by Alan Ashton Smith
8/10
Medway folk-rockers The Singing Loins seem to be in extremely good spirits on this new double A-side. I say ‘new’, but both of these songs are in fact re-recordings of older tracks: this comes as no great surprise, as the Loins sound so assured and relaxed. ‘House In The Woods’ is a refreshing change after the gritty urban sound of their last album; here vocalist Chris Broderick yearns for an uncomplicated, rural life. The song itself is almost as simple as the lifestyle it describes, but some finger-picking and a lilting accordion in the background ensure it still has a warm feel. ‘Ain’t The World A Lovely Place’ follows a fairly similar pattern – again, this is unpretentious folk music, with jangling guitars and a cheery melody. Broderick’s slightly sneering tone of voice is more apparent on this track; it’s a welcome change from the earnest wholesomeness of many folk musicians, and doesn’t detract from the positive messages of the two songs. ‘House In The Woods’ is upbeat, but ‘Ain’t The World A Lovely Place’ is even more so; combined with the uplifting lyrics, listeners should come away from this release feeling thoroughly at ease with the world.
Penny Black Music - Reviewed by Malcolm Carter
After a dozen or so albums the Singing Loins, who hail from the Medway Delta, are still unknown to many music lovers. I confess that the band were a new name to this scribe before their new double A-side 7” single landed on my doormat.
It appears that founder members Chris ‘Brod’ Broderick (who vocally, on these songs at least, makes a case for being the best English vocalist in any of the bands mining that same punk/folk/rock seam) and guitarist Chris ‘Arfur’ Allen have now recruited two new members in the shape of Rob Shepherd, whose banjo is all over both of these songs, and John Forrester on double bass. I’m not sure how long this line-up has been together but it sounds like they were born to be in the same band. The feeling that these guys are so obviously enjoying playing together shines through every second of this 45.
The sound the Singing Loins make is nothing new. With that amount of albums behind them, some must be cut from the same cloth as this single as both songs are revamps of tunes that the guys have recorded before. They are certainly as well not the only band mixing up punk and folk, and turning the resulting ramshackle sound into something which grabs your attention.
But these songs are insanely catchy. Broderick’s vocals hit you the moment he opens his mouth to sing. Shane MacGowan and both Mick Jones and Joe Strummer instantly come to mind, while the sound of Shepherd’s banjo and an accordion playing gently in the background give ‘House In The Woods’ instant appeal. Broderick’s ode for a simpler life will not only raise a smile or two but will have you singing along by the end of the first verse. “Time for sitting/Time for loving/Time aplenty for doing nothing/One pair of boots for work and walking/Dust them off when I go a-courting,” Broderick will paint pictures in your mind as the song unfolds. It’s a little gem of a song and will rattle around in your head all day long.
‘Ain’t The World A Lovely Place’ is a little more raucous in places than the previous song but none the worse for that. Again the chorus will have you singing along in no time at all, and will leave you longing to catch this band live at a gig somewhere.
Neither ‘House In The Woods’ or ‘Ain’t The World A Lovely Place’ are featured on The Loins latest album, Stuff’, which was released earlier this year, so their fans will naturally want this single, but it also serves as a brilliant introduction to the music of the Singing Loins who are giving folk music the kick up the backside it so often needs to make it more appealing. Now to check out that back catalogue…
Thrills Infectious Wire Burst - by Katerina Stankovic - February 2011
This is lovely stuff. Katerina Stankovic reviewed our Belgrade & Pirot shows for the Serbian B92 site (their equivalent of our BBC). Here's the Serbian original, but how about this wierdly poetic Google literal translation.......here.
A bit of pre-gig blurb from Pirot here....not by Katerina I should add....and here's a google translation...."Brilliant British Folk Singing Loins band will perform for the third time in Pirot. Immediately after the publication date for the Serbian tour, The Singing Loins themselves insisted that occur in Pirot for great organization and received by the audience on the previous two shows. The guys from the band have even insisted upon arrival in Pirot and voluntarily donate blood to at least symbolically show respect for the hosts. However, due to legal procedures, this idea is too difficult to implement. Although they play acoustic instruments, they are characterized by furious concert appearances."
...Thank f#ck the blood
bit didn't happen!
ALBUM REVIEWS FOR "STUFF"
The Medway Broadside - Reviewed by Stuart Turner
Have a look here - it's a cracking review. Stuart starts off......."Watching the Singing Loins play live gives you the overwhelming impression that it must be enormous fun being a Singing Loin. The knockabout onstage banter, the raucous full tilt attack of their more beery sing-along numbers and the inevitable self deprecation as Broderick, Allen and Shepherd tear through a selection of their frankly astonishing back catalogue. All this belies the fact that the Singing Loins have developed into remarkable and sophisticated tunesmiths with lyrics steeped in pathos and intelligence, yet still capable of enormous wit and humour.....".
Artrocker
- Reviewed by
Lee Puddefoot
**** (4 stars)
There’s something in the
water over in Medway. It's Billy Childish country y’see; they don’t know the
meaning of the words “no” or “stop”. This is The Singing Loins' 11th album, and
it's a bolshy, cabaret-fuelled drama queen of a monster.
There's a whole variety of thrills to be had here, from the banjo vs orchestral
renegade roar of 'Where's My machine Gun?' to the mellow country weepy 'Nail It
back Together'. In either guise, the band excel.
Largely this is a melancholy album with songs like ‘Friendship, For Once’,
‘Running Away From Home’ and ‘Another Folk Song About Death’ elegantly wearing
their hearts on their sleeves.
On the other hand though, you do also get songs like ‘The Dog Shit Gang' - which
sounds like a cockney bar dance about condoms and vomit. The Singing Loins –
the real sound of Britain.
South Country Music
This is the album I have
been waiting for since The Singing Loins went on hiatus 1999. I do not wish to
begrudge the Loins when they reformed in 2005 with ‘Songs To Hear Before You
Die’ or Rob Shepherd’s introduction on 2007’s ’The Drowned Man Resuscitator’
(mainly because Shepherd added to the already brilliant team) or even 2009’s
‘Unravelling England’. No, all of these album’s are fantastic and well worth
owning and I loved each one as it was released. However, hindsight being what it
is I feel that each album built up to this.
So let’s pretend, just for a moment you don’t know who The Singing Loins are,
shall we? They are the reigning two-fisted poets of the working-class. The music
is a bastard mix of folk, punk, and American Vaudeville. Vocally the songs dance
around the crude, the violent, and the painfully morose. It is quite possible to
cry at the same time you find yourself clapping along and howling at the top of
your lungs. Musically, these are the melodies you find yourself humming while
hiking, cutting wood, pouring too much whiskey into your cola, or reading
Sinclair’s the Jungle. There is an earnest working class feel to this collection
of over twenty years worth of songs.
That brings us to Stuff. I now hate every band that has been around for twenty
years and doesn’t sound this pure and unadulterated. This collection hits on old
themes and familiar landscapes, but at no point does it feel rehashed and
suspect. ‘Slab O’ Slate’ starts the album of with a traditional Loins’ folk
number about poverty and alienation only to introduce an seemingly un-Loins
musical excursion, in ‘Where’s My Machinegun?’, that left me cackling madly with
glee.
‘Friendship for Once’ is that moment most men have when the choice between
flirtation and legitimate concern takes hold and the brilliant ‘Running Away
from Home’ is melancholy lament for everyone faced that open doorframe and
thought, “They’ll never miss me.” I would be remiss in my review if I also
didn’t mention the Johnny Rotten allusion in ‘Dog Shit Gang’ and the driving
force of ‘Any Good Englishman.’ ’The beauty of these songs is the universality
and timelessness of it all.
There is no moralizing, glorification, or answers provided by The Singing Loins.
There is just Stuff and what you make of it.
Buzzin Music
The Singing Loins have a
special place in my tattered heart; they have inhabited a gristly ventricle
since I first saw them perform at some village boozer when I was about 16. Hypnotised by the awesome
sight of Chris Broderick beating a large stick with beer bottle tops nailed to
it against the floor with such power as he sung ballads of his love for the
dockyard town I grew up in, I remember thinking if this is what live music is
about, count me in.
Nearly 17 years later and they’ve lost none of that charm. They’re one of
Medway’s finest and worst kept secrets, who created a huge interest and new
following when they reformed in 2005 with the awesome Songs To Hear Before You
Die. I’ve seen them turn a rowdy boozer of beer swillers silent with their
rousing odes to the underbelly of the Medway Delta. That gives you a glimmer of
the sheer power they have when you see grown men shed a silent tear when they
play.
Their ‘can do but don’t give a fuck‘ attitude is what separates them from the
upstart whippersnappers who try, and mostly fail, to imitate their infectious
blend of raw folk, spit and sawdust punk and beautiful English shanties.
While Stuff is more polished than anything I’ve heard of theirs before, it still
retains the raw beauty of their dirty hobnails. Chris Broderick’s beautiful
Estuary drool, dirty beats, upturned tea chests and banjo shine through and
remain the true stars.
Theirs has an authenticity that is hard to find these days in a world of
disposable pop shit and recycled and repackaged dirge.
Theirs are songs in the greatest folk traditions which pick at the scab of the
poor, downtrodden characters anyone who’s ever spent a Saturday night in Strood
will recognise. The heartfelt honesty of the beautiful All Her Life and Running
Away From Home suggest a sophisticated maturity which I defy anyone without
blood pulsating through their veins not to get a lump in their throat.
But don’t get too soft, Dog Shit Gang invokes the spirit of Anarchy in the UK
and kicks an empty bottle of whisky across the floor, while the utterly rousing
opener Slab O’ Slate and the charming howl of Nail it Back Together are the
record’s stand outs for me.
If you don’t know the Singing Loins, then get listening. Thank god they put
their differences aside six years ago and gave me something which has put a
smile on my face for the first time in months. Cheers!
Shout4Music - Reviewed by Alan Ashton Smith
Three things inform the music of The Singing Loins. Firstly, there is folk tradition that brings banjo picking and often maudlin lyrics into the mix. This is handled with tongue very much in cheek, however – one of the songs is cheekily entitled ‘Another Folk Song About Death’. A punk ethos and influence is treated slightly more reverently; it’s through the sneering tone of the vocals that The Singing Loins come across as impassioned guys who are worth listening to. But they’re not above satirising their influences here either. At one point, the refrain ‘I wanna be…’ is lifted unchanged from ‘Anarchy In The UK’, though what singer Chris Broderick apparently wants to be is a part of something called ‘The Dog Shit Gang’. The third thing that The Singing Loins are steeped in is their Medway origins. This is most apparent in ‘Ascending Chatham Hill’, which describes climbing up from the grim terrain of Chatham and into ‘the Eden of Upper Gillingham’. The use of local colour certainly makes ‘Stuff‘ a distinctive record, and it’s evident throughout that this is a band whose great strength is their ability not to take themselves – or anything else – too seriously.
ROCK 'n'
REEL
- David Burke
www.rock-n-reel.co.uk
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Nail It Back Together was on the free cover mount CD on the Jan / Feb issue of Rock'n'Reel. The review goes.....
"The Singing Loins have been on a bit of a roll since their rebirth in 2005, with sell-out European tours, plenty of American indie radio airplay and even - would you Adam and Eve it - some mainstream recognition on these shores beyond their native Medway. Well I never. Their eleventh album, Stuff, can only enhance their reputation. Its clash of folk, punk, music hall, cabaret and Thames Estuary blues is the kind of noise The Pogues might have made if Shane MacGowan hadn't gone with his Irish heart instead of his English head......."
....and he goes on to make special mention of ""Where's My Machine Gun?" (its demented organ played by a circus midget with a clawhammer hand)".....that'll be Arf then. |
Punk Rock Ist Nicht Tot
A quite good review here.....we'll take it I guess....."From the full throttle punk folk of ‘Where’s My Machine Gun’, where Chris Broderick snarls and spits ‘Love thy neighbour/do us a favour/drop down dead/you graceless piece of shite’, to the ballad ‘Friendship For Once’ a beautifully played ballad with a dirty theme, there’s plenty to enjoy.....".
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New Album Launch in The Medway News Nice piece here in the Medway News.... |
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...and in the Medway Messenger... ...talking to Rob about Ascending Chatham Hill. |
MEDWAY BROADSIDE - THIS IS NOT A RETROSPECTIVE - DEC 2010
Great article by Reavsey in The Medway Broadside here (independent newspaper for the Medway Towns).
BEACON COURT OCT 2010 GIG
The Lupen Crook lads have posted a blog gathering together some video and some Radio Sunlight interviews - here - it features a nice little chat with Brod (Arf & Rob no doubt did a runner at the mere mention of an interview) plus a link to us doing Scissors on the night.
There's also a good review of the gig here
THE GREATEST BAND YOU'VE NEVER HEARD OF....
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THE CHUBBY FUNSTER...... http://www.chainsmokingrecords.com/thechubbyfunster/ There's a 2 page interview with the Loins in the March 2010 issue of the Chubby Funster (American Midwest fanzine specialising in punk and Americana). |
A DAMAGED CHRISTMAS GIFT FOR YOU
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The Damaged Goods - Digital only Xmas 2009 compilation Featuring some of the best Christmas tracks Damaged Goods have released over the last 20 odd years, including the Loins' very own 'Ding Dong Merrily On High'. There was a review on the BBC site ("the brilliantly monikered Singing Loins"...that's a first!) and The Loins also get a mention in the Guardian review on the left...... Get it from Damaged Goods, or from iTunes.
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UNRAVELLING ENGLAND
One of Nude Magazine's top-14 albums of 2009.
ROCK 'n' REEL - Reviewed by Diane Mason
**** (4 stars)
Unruly, unrefined and unbridled, maestros of misrule The Singing Loins are back
with a blinding set destined to shake the vitals of listeners from the Medway
Delta to Manchester and beyond. Unravelling England opens with the sleazy brio
of Dirty Dora's, giving way to the insistently sinister Please Take My Scissors
away.
Freaks, geeks and the socially dysfunctional people the lyrics of this thing of
many moods. The Fat Boy Of Peckham is a raw and wry commentary on youthful
obesity, with energetic and edgy accordion, while Cunny Ann is trad folk with
bare-knuckle attitude, picking up the pace with mighty mandolin and cranked up
fiddle, infectious enough to have this reviewer pogoing round the front parlour,
punching the air.
The slower songs pack a genuine emotional wallop, too, with Everywhere being
that rare pleasure, a love song with depth and sincerity. Forget niceties,
Unravelling England is a storming album and, once again, the Loins deliver a
sharp knee to the nuts of all purveyors of the polite and half hearted.
Reviewed by Iain Aitch
(July 2009)
Iain Aitch is author of We’re British Innit, published by Collins (www.britishinnit.com)
http://www.folkingcool.co.uk/2009/07/05/79/
Sitting somewhere between the kind of urban folk-punk that abounded in the wake
of the Pogues and the Medway bedroom blues of Billy Childish, this accomplished
12-tracker paints a portrait of an England filled with love, loss and circus
freaks.
On tracks like Cunny Ann they come on like early, full steam ahead The Men They
Couldn’t Hang, though the Loins, who have been around since 1990, are no mere
copyists. So Sophisticated drags up Kentish/London/Irish roots with some aplomb,
though the standout track is Please Take My Scissors Away, which offers a punky
collision between Brel and the Tiger Lillies that sees everyone crashing off the
end of the pier and into the drink. Lyrically and vocally the Singing Loins
offer up something that offers glimpses of Ian Dury and Robb Johnson, though the
snarl of sometimes collaborator Childish is in there as well.
Dirty Doras seems to draw on the more emotive end of Chas and Dave’s back
catalogue, with Old Ferry Lane expounding on the kind of grimy, canal-based
romance found in Dirty Old Town. Unravelling England is certainly a place to
find wonderful portraits of outcasts, oddballs and (not so) lovable rogues, as
Psycho Hippie and The Fat Boy of Peckham show, the latter being perhaps the
first musical tribute to south London’s one-man early 20th century obesity
crisis. Since You Were My Girl shows the Singing Loins do gentle ballads as well
as they execute dialect-laden thrashes, which means that you will soon have this
catchy album on repeat so you can shout or sob along as the mood takes you.
Mark Deming for CD Universe (2009)
http://www.cduniverse.com
The third album from the Singing Loins since they returned
to active duty in 2005, Unravelling England is that rare recording that really
deserves to be called folk-punk. Chris Broderick's vocals can conjure up the
same sort of joyously bitter
snarl that would have earned him a gig at the Vortex back in
1977, but he also has a genuine respect for the traditions of British acoustic
music, and his style manages to keep a foot in each plot at once. It helps that
he's also a top-shelf songwriter with plenty of different colors at his disposal
-- he's just as comfortable with the rude good humor of "Cunny Ann" and "Dirty
Dora's" and the two-fingers attitude of "Psycho Hippie" and "The Fat Boy of
Peckham" as the eloquent heartache of "Since You Were My Girl" and "My Town."
Broderick gets excellent support from bandmates Chris Allen on guitars and Rob
Shepherd on accordion and banjo, as they fill up the arrangements with admirable
efficiency and taste, and inviting guest fiddler Cari Sayers for the sessions
was a fine idea.
For an album made using a whopping three microphones and recorded
in the spare room of the engineer Glenn Barnes' home, the audio is quite
impressive, clean and full of presence, and the performances are rich with life
and muscle without sounding anything less than natural. And "Everywhere" is as
smart, impassioned, and moving a song about love as you're likely to hear this
year. Listening to Unravelling England is a bit like stepping into the back room
of a pub to hear a brilliant band quietly sawing away, unconcerned with anyone
hearing them or not, but in this case you can move back to the first track and
confirm that your suspicions were correct -- the Singing Loins are just as good
as you imagined, and they've made an unpretentiously outstanding album with
Unravelling England. ~ Mark Deming
Ralph McLean show on BBC Radio Ulster (August 2009)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/northernireland/radioulster/ralphmclean/
After playing a couple of songs...."Lyrically sophisticated and musically pure.....I'll be buying their entire back catalogue".
Reviewed by Hugh Gulland (September 2009)
For Vive Le Punk
www.vivelepunk.net
Touching folk-punk slices of English
life.
5/5
Lifting the lid on the bubbling undercurrents of life in London and its home
counties environs, Singing Loins operate a curious kind of semi acoustic
post-punk cabaret. Unravelling England offers a highly idiosyncratic insight on
Englishness, one that nimbly sidesteps the pitfalls of parochialism, much in the
spirit of kindred rockin’ cockneys Ian Dury or Steve Marriott. The raw-edged
urban-folk reels of ‘Dirty Dora’ or ‘The Fat Boy Of Peckham’ reverberate with
warmth and wit, and the heart-sick laments of ‘Since You Were My Girl’ or
‘Everywhere’ are as human and touching as anything I’ve come by in a good long
while. This is rag ’n’ bone folk ‘n’ roll with poetry and soul.
ROCK 'n' REEL
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THE DROWNED MAN RESUSCITATOR
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| Mojo | Plan B |
Rock'n'Reel |
Rock'n'Reel Live Review |
Reviewed by Lois Wilson - MOJO (Jan 08)
**** (4 stars)
Masterminded in 1990 by Chris Broderick (Vocalist, poet, screenwriter, novella writer), guitarist Arfur Allen and banjo, mandolin and accordion player Rob Shepherd, the Loins aim was to make 'Authentic raw folk from the Medway delta'. Early LP's were recorded in Billy Childish's toilet (for the acoustics), with Bruce Brand and Holly Golightly chiming in. By 1996's 'Clever Clogs & Big Head' they'd parted, only to come together again in 2004 to try again. Thank heavens they did! The Drowned Man Resuscitator, the follow up to 2005's Songs To Hear Before You Die, is the Loins at their very best, combining raucous traditional song (Be Merry!) with heartbreaking outpourings of emotion (My Brother) and salutes to ladies of the night (God Bless The Whores Of Rochester). It's good to have them back!
Reviewed by Everett True - Plan B (August 07)
The Drowned Man Resuscitator is the sort of rabble rousing banjo and mandolin led populist music that the Levellers gave such a bad name to… and yet this 'cut the crap', bawdy, modern day English working class folk band manages the trick of being affecting without lapsing into sentimentalism. Imagine… I dunno The Pogues produced by Liam Watson at Toe Rag, raw-assed folk stripped right back till only the bare bones of emotion and rock remain. Man, this is great.
Sometimes it's out and out boisterous ('God Bless The Whores Of Rochester', 'Be Merry'), sometimes it's out and out romantic (the unashamedly open 'To A Beautiful Woman Growing Older', which reduced me to tears on the first listen), always brimful with sincerity. There's a certain edge, fierceness in Chris Broderick's voice that makes you believe in him; a belief in the blacks and whites of life appeals to this boy who seems to be mostly surrounded by grey… plus a corking pot-shot at Christianity (Why, Lord?), that blares out like a beacon.
The Singing Loins can be as savage as Billy Childish at his most belligerent and are equally as inspirational. This is a fine record indeed.
Reviewed by Sean McGhee in Rock 'n' Reel (Sep 07)
Now extended to a 3 piece, Rochester's very own Singing Loins have developed a particularly effective 3 pronged attack that allows The Drowned Man Resuscitator to reverberate with the kind of earthy, raw melodies that have built their reputation. This time around, though, they've skillfully grafted on a carefully studied song craft and offer a more accessible immediacy that gets you hook, line and sinker, from the word go.
Opening with their own cleverly tongue-in-cheek anthem 'We Are The Singing Loins' and onwards via songs like the evocatively titled 'God Bless The Whores Of Rochester', 'The Topless Twins Of Allhallows On Sea' and 'To A Beautiful Woman Growing Older', they demonstrate a more strident and celebratory confidence. Their unique brand of urban folk, trademarked by a gritty and pithy sound, takes the folk blueprint and creates a music that spans at least the last five decades but still sounds strikingly contemporary - one of the finest examples being ' The Hartlake Bridge Disaster', a trad-styled piece of suitably melancholic atmosphere, whilst their classic sound of clucking banjo, driving guitar and mandolin takes glorious centre stage on 'Be Merry!'
The Singing Loins stand as a sterling reminder of the vigour and inspiration woefully absent elsewhere within the contemporary new acoustic movement.
Reviewed by Everett True in Village Voice (New York)
To A Beautiful Woman Growing Older is this year's most beautiful and honest love song by an unashamedly anti-capitalist, romantic old school English folk band.
SONGS TO HEAR BEFORE YOU DIE
Reviewed by Brian Gillespie in Shite 'n' Onions. www.shitenonions.com
For a fellow known to go randomly off on a tangent from time to time, the latest release from The Singing Loins has left me totally speechless. It's absolutely brilliant. It's raw, it's authentic, It's also one of the most complete albums I've heard in recent years! Trust me, I've had this album for several months now, and I honestly had to calm down before I could even attempt to review it. Sure, you could mention this as a candidate for record of the year, but personally I think it's so timeless it shouldn't matter what bloody year it is. Their sound has that acoustic grit most bands would kill for. Real folk music. True busking troubadours. The Singing Loins play the type of folk music that leaves a ring in your bathtub. Skiffle with soul, so to speak...
Simply put, a true, flawless classic.
Reviewed by Sean McGhee in Punk Oi
"As proof
that you can't keep a good man down, or in this case two, after nearly a decade
Medway's finest return with a new album of acoustic/earthy originals. For
points of reference imagine a mutant fusion of Chas'n'Dave
jamming with the Pogues in a smoky back-street
boozer. This is the authentic sound of the underbelly of Kent, punk
attitude and a drunken swagger. This is folk music given back its balls,
bite and no little bile.
Given the
chance the Singing Loins could do for English folk what the Pogues
did for Irish music, snatch it back from the middle class historians and
musical purists as poignancy, pathos, drama and real life is present within
their songs in abundance. Match with that an ability of the duo to
produce some of the finest gritty yet warm and utterly infectious ballads that reveal an almost psychic understanding of each
other's approach.
There's a dark beauty in the suspenseful "Low November Sun", a swagger and cockiness to "Honest Man", a melodic attractiveness to the delightful "Angel of the Medway", while they revisit with a vengeance previous scenes of glory on "Skinners Rats", that once again bemoans the fate of those working as an underclass for agencies. As ever it's delivered with a bubbling air of anger but an upbeat defiance. Top this off with another Singing Loins sing-along classic in the exuberance of "The Pub On The Corner", a rip-roaring anthem to the dirt and grime of real drinking establishments, "The Chief Constable's missus flat out on the floor/With her legs in the air and her head out the door..." The musical equivalent of a pastie and a pint in a smoky warm bar, where the beer is cold and the women are hot!
BIZARRE
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| Bizzare had a bit of fun with this old photo. It took us a while to notice. They've shifted Brod's muscular body with the tuba onto Arf's little legs & head, and Arf's skinny body with the dog onto Brod's perfectly proportioned legs and superhero face. (I expect Arf will come back with something here) | |
LIVE REVIEW - PORTLAND ARMS, CAMBRIDGE, April 06. www.rhythmonline.co.uk
The band we were most keen to see were Medway's Singing Loins, in a rare live appearance. This was just lovely enthralling stuff. With the feel of a series of 1950's kitchen-sink dramas put to music, or the real relevant/authentic sound of English folk (they have been compared before now to an English Pogues). They were never less than totally riveting and engaging from start to finish, with wit, humour and great story telling.
THE COMPLETE & UTTER SINGING LOINS -
Reviewed by Ben Donnelly in US Mag, DUSTED. www.dustedmagazine.com
...The duo formed in the early 90's with the specific intent of messing around with English folk. And mess around they did, 49 times, all of which are collected for this compilation.
The somber, medieval lilt of traditional balladry is tossed against the kitchen sink imagery and anger of post-war Britain. Think of the grimy films of Ken Loach or Phillip Larkin's hostile poetry.
...Their austere rawness exposes a warm heart. The Singing Loins are like a hedgehog - small, smelly and covered with prickles, but very English and charming in spite of it all.
“The Loins are fast
becoming one of my favourite acts... They radiate
originality and attack their instruments like their lives depended on it, and
are absolutely incapable of a lacklustre
performance... Beautifully rough acoustic music has rarely sounded this good...
They produce a sound that is the most intense and superbly vital
Sean McGhee - ROCK ‘N’ REEL
“The excellent Singing Loins provide an exotic mix of the traditional and the ultra modern.”
TIME OUT
“A style and panache so
strong... Startling... Monumentally magnificent. An overtly original sound which draws out a
truly splendid yet gritty taste of
Spike Sommer - SPIRAL SCRATCH
“Sure beats the shit outta the Pogues.”