Discovery Of The Week: Cassels

Step into most crusty, dog-eared Camden boozers and you’ll still find an old skinhead in a Clash t-shirt perched on the end of the bar decrying the loss of punk spirit from today’s bands – and they kind of have a point. The arrival of Sleaford Mods last year was a rare, well directed flob into the face of ‘Cameron’s Britain’, but the political angst of most groups barely rose to much more than wearing a ‘FREE PUSSY RIOT’ badge. As pointed out by Charlie Brooker in his brilliantly cutting Screen Wipe show, 2014’s dystopian rundown included Ebola, ISIS beheadings, apocalyptic weather storms, austerity and Operation Yewtree, yet the year’s ubiquitous anthem was ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams – or, as he put it: an “uptempo reboot of If you’re happy and you know it, clap your hands”. You’d think there’d be a siege of angry young gunslingers queuing up to put the world to rights.

Rejoice then, for baby-faced Oxfordshire brothers Jim (guitar, vocals) and Loz Beck (drums) are here with their attempts to rekindle the growling thrash of Black Flag, the wide-eyed teenage rush of that first Jam record, the sloganeering rage of Crass and the raucous doom of fellow grungey two-piece Drenge. Named after a West London psychiatric hospital, Cassels may look like they could be blown away in a strong gust but together they summon a mighty, guttural storm of scowling, a spikey-axe dirge over which Jim politely, almost timidly, delivers streams of worldly musings. It’s a joy to hear a band confront issues beyond their own sixth-form emotions and offer such stark, confused, damning state of the nation’s addresses.

Latest offering ‘We Wander in the Night’ takes on the wealth gap and social alienation, and comes accompanied by a poignant video featuring homeless man Peter and his faithful dog Bronson. A fixed camera captures them sitting on the streets as the legs of commuters and shoppers scurry past in a blur. As raging riffs and hostile drums obliterate the maudlin picture, Jim delivers his weary testament – “You can’t run a democracy when no one cares/You can’t govern apathy or influence despair/ But all this disparity just seems so unfair/ But I have no solution, I merely express my fears”It’s a heartfelt effort to raise an issue so easy to walk past, done without a trace of Bono’s finger wagging, and the band promise to give half the profits from sales of the 7” single to the charity Crisis. The old punk rockers will be pleased.

Take a look for yourself:

 

Buy ‘We Wander In The Night’ here

 

Kevin Irwin

Kevin Irwin

Kevin Irwin

Kevin Irwin

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