We continue our BBC Sound Of roundup with a UK duo with a name that… uh… yeah…
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Will Adams: “The Hunter” is clunky, incoherent revival rock I’m almost shocked exists. Then again, a band that willingly calls themselves “Slaves” can’t be expected to put any care into their music, I suppose.
[2]
Tara Hillegeist: In which a band of white tossers (seeing as they’re British, “fuckboys” seems inadequate) with a name like “Slaves”, which wasn’t cute, funny, or forgivable even back when this was white boys with band names like “Joy Division,” marry the thud-thump posing of today’s latest Arctic Monkeys-alike to pub-fascist lyrics, without even the pathetic ambitions of, say, Gallows. What more did I expect from a little racist hack? Absolutely nothing, and they’re living down to every preconceived notion I had. Two points for getting it over with quick, but only two. They’re not out of here quick enough.
[2]
Patrick St. Michel: Dude, you got to check out these guys. They have it fucking figured out — their website address is “youareallslaves.com”; that’s so true man. And they have this song, “The Hunter,” and it’s so on point, bro. They are angry at like everyone, and don’t fuck it up with, like, telling you what to be angry about, so you don’t feel bad about not doing anything. It’s like, fuck you I’m right, because I said so, I read about global warming I know what’s up. And they sound like Arctic Monkeys, except dude would probably smash a bottle over your head after a couple drinks before throwing up on the bar.
[1]
Katherine St Asaph: Crazy Town wakes up in a fury, thinking they are all Jack White.
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Thomas Inskeep: Yeah, I’d say “You keep it/We don’t want it” pretty much sums up my reaction. Like Libertines fans learning White Stripes songs from sheet music. Actually, worse than that sounds.
[2]
Iain Mew: Appropriately enough, the last new British band to come off this spectacularly dull-witted were The Holloways singing about how we’re all just a bunch of slaves. The first time I heard the first verse of “The Hunter” I thought Slaves were climate change deniers, but I think they’re just falsely representing “the experts” as being against climate change so that they can be brave and counter-cultural by tearing them down. It’s so badly written it’s hard to tell, but that explanation fits with their desperation to shock without having any idea how. Copying music that their parents got over the shock value of decades ago, and actually singing “that shocks and frightens you” makes that lack of clue very clear.
[1]
Rebecca A. Gowns: The sound of teens who would list their primary influences as Cake and Rage Against the Machine; their name suggests that they have literally no other awareness of the world.
[1]
Anthony Easton: This voice moves a little south of Cookie Monster and is genuinely intimidating because of it. Not pure metal but brilliantly on the next street over.
[8]
Alfred Soto: A Johnny Rotten imitator! Haven’t heard one of those in a while. Maybe Richard Butler is a better fit, for not only is Jonny Craig content to be a cartoon of a cartoon, he even repeats “useless” and “worthless” like Butler did “stupid.” The performance redeems the song, which while not stupid exists to be declamatory about.
[5]
Megan Harrington: Trite shite.
[1]
Micha Cavaseno: The lip’s curling is practically audible here in some real post-Stranglers harvesting the sludgier end of old school Alice Cooper Band nausea. Its not bad per se, but we’ve heard this song, the song that influenced this song, the song that inspired said influencers to pick up a guitar and so many more. Fitting that I describe this with a paraphrased reference to some other attempt at rabble rousing and insurgency by young Brits with guitars: “People have been playing like this for about 20 thousand years, and quite frankly Its just boring my ass off.”
[3]
Madeleine Lee: Look, it’s not really my place to criticize the traditions of other cultures — and I’m assuming that the minimal-nihilist punk band with a barky vocalist is some kind of English tradition and that’s why this song is interesting. I will say that the riff and drum beat sound like they’re fun to play together. Maybe too much fun; even at 3 minutes, this song is a minute too long.
[3]
Brad Shoup: Did you know John McCrea is 50? Astounding. And yet Slaves make his jive-talk sound a billion years older, pairing it with a laconic nu-rock creep that surely soundtrack’s hell’s gentlemen’s club. I guess they could have gone more gauche — bringing in infernal brass, perhaps, or adding a turntable — but as it lies it’s a bratty slog uphill.
[4]
Jonathan Bradley: Maybe Ecuador will offer them asylum?
[3]
Crystal Leww: I’m glad white dudes still have no self-awareness or just genuinely don’t give a fuck about other people. Also, their music is fucking boring.
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