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I
hear this
Manchester band is uncompromising in their wild partying. First
of all, I’d like to see as much enthusiasm as they put in their
collateral activities as in achieving a decent recording. This
self-titled debut sounds muffled, like someone is pushing thick
pillows against the speakers. It’s a minor defect, but one that
jumps in your face and that causes a long lasting bitter first
impression. But I am an anal asshole and what may be a problem
for me may be an advantage for others. With that in mind, the
best part of Blues and Snake is the first, by that I mean the
bluesy part, where the black genre meets the punk garage rock; a
genre that has survived, come close to dying, and thrived
through the shittiest of recordings and that Blues and Snake
seems to be learning a lot about. This is far from shitty, but
their approach is surely not helped by the sound achieved here.
The key word of that whole paragraph now being ‘learning’,
because quite frankly, despite their best intentions and some
good moments, Blues and Snake still sound quite immature.
Songwise,
this quartet has ways to go, but display some really good ideas.
These ideas are better manifested on their band’s bluesy garage
punk side. The opener is strong with the band presenting itself
as a rambunctious combo, the meat and potatoes rock guitars that
open are a nice compliment to the bluesy licks that conform the
core riff and the breakdown in the middle carpeting the
harmonica and the solo sustains the theory that there is talent
here.
Better yet
is this record’s best track “Fine Just Fine”; deranged, loud and
obnoxious, this is the type of material Blues and Snake could
exploit ‘til death and get away with some respect. This is the
type of song that could grant them a deal with the mighty Dead
Beat Records. Unfortunately, either the band loses focuses or
“Fine Just Fine” was just a lucky strike. The rest of the album
sounds amateurish, with flashing moments of quality standing far
on top a second rate album.
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