More about: Deadcuts
New album, Hit On All Sixess, features members of The Only Ones, Senseless Things, The Bad Seeds, Muse, and Gorillaz.
"Spiritually awoken" might not be the first words to mind when describing any of Deadcuts’ macabre lead singles from their new album Hit On All Sixess, out 2 February 2018 on Speedowax. Yet apparently for lead singer Mark Keds, that’s exactly what writing the follow up to Dark is Night felt like.
The fog may have lifted for Keds, but the music is certainly still shrouded in trademark gloom and terror. ‘Dope Girls’ is murky and dark – born in the back alleys of Shoreditch, covered in sweat, blood, and fluids various. An ominous beat barely holding together Keds’ gasping vocals takes place, while a soaring guitar glides above, looking for its next score. If Kevin Shields had been born behind a bin in Victorian London, perhaps Loveless may have sounded a bit more like this.
A comparison like that is meant as no slight to the band. Deadcuts surely pride themselves on the weird and uncomfortable, the video for another of the lead singles, ‘Summon the Witches’ hinges on just that. An exorcism catered with maggots and offal is sound tracked by stuttering dual guitar parts and thick bass, while the voice of Reverend D. Wayne bookends the service how only the pastor from hell can.
They’re a cult, summoning the occult, begging for flesh, blood, and hellfire; and these songs are their calling chant. I mean, should we expect any less from a band who can count Fat White Family, Sebadoh, Sleaford Mods, and Pete Doherty as touring pals? What with so much of rock music cleaning up and seeing the light, I think we could do with a few more bands oozing with dark and dirtiness like Deadcuts.
Hit On All Sixess tracklisting:
‘Single’
‘Unfaithful’
‘Sleepless Alies’
‘Opium Style’
‘Vains’
‘Craving’
‘Venus’
‘The Purge’
‘My Delinquency’
‘Summon The Witches’
‘Dope Girls’
‘Permanent Twilight’
‘Don’t Die Yet’
ABOUT DEADCUTS:
Deadcuts were formed by songwriters Mark Keds (Senseless Things, Jolt) and Jerome Alexandre (The Skuzzies) who were later joined by Cass Browne (Senseless Things, Gorillaz) and bassist Aaron Scars (Olympus Mons, RKC).
Hit On All Sixess was produced by Deadcuts and mixed by Ralph Jezzard (The Prodigy) and recorded at The Black Chapel , Old Street Studios and Cable Street Studios. The album features guest appearances by John Perry (The Only Ones) , Morgan Nicholls (Muse), Charlotte Glasson (Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds) and Raven Bush (Syd Arthur).
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Words: Joel Burton
More about: Deadcuts
