ALBUM: Red Pills (From Keighley News)

ALBUM: Red Pills

7:48am Thursday 9th July 2009 in Search By David Knights

With a line-up of Captain Mayhem, Major Layoff, Private Parts and General Ignorance - I was anticipating some old school punk rock, the likes of which I followed when I was a lad.

The soft rock opener of the Awakening EP, You Rip Me Up, is a disappointment but the letdown was short lived.

As soon as the opening guitar chords kick in on Such A Shame the recording suddenly comes to life and the band begin to live up to their choice of aliases.

Absolute Power is the pick of the six tracks and the female harmonies alongside lead vocals and rocking guitar add up to something quite superb.

The vocal on Sunset Boulevard is pure Pete Murphy whilst Smile For Me Jenny sounds like a mixture of Dead Kennedys and Stiff Little Fingers.

The production is a little flat in places and I swear I can hear tape hiss but perhaps this was intentional to give the recording that authentic punk rock sound.

Graham Scaife