Crawling Age – CD-R

Crawling Age were first on the bill at this great gig I went to last month, headlined by The Real Numbers from America (whom I liked a lot). Crawling Age is kind of a UK garage-punk supergroup of sorts, featuring one bloke from Black Time, one bloke from The Hipshakes and one bloke from… well to be honest I forget which band the other guy is from, but I’m sure they’re pretty good (he was filling in on drums w/ Real Numbers at this particular show).

I think Crawling Age are one of those ‘get together for one day a year / write and record a bunch of stuff in an afternoon’ kind of deals, and indeed, they seem concerned with little beyond having a laugh, swapping instruments so that everybody gets to have a go at everything, and making a lively bunch of oven-ready <2 minute songs, putting seven of the best of ‘em on this CD-R, and giving a free copy to anyone who’s interested. A fine approach! A happy racket!

Live, they lengthened their set to the requisite twenty minutes with much mucking about and a great version of Jowe Head’s immortal ‘Cake Shop’, and the spirit of Swell Maps indeed hangs heavy over these recordings. Hard to put your finger on exactly *where* it hangs amid the murky din of Crawling Age, but when the certain nameless, inexplicable something that Swell Maps forever defined is present, you can never mistake it. It’s there, creeping through the cracks, coagulating amid the background shouts and between song chuckles. Introduce it to the blaring, belligerent murk these men call home in their main bands, and a good thing is born, somewhat not dissimilar to that great Human Race CD I wrote up last year.

Opening song ‘(You Crossed Over To) The Other Side’ is my favourite here, in that it sounds exactly like you’d want a punk song called “(You Crossed Over To) The Other Side” to sound. Eg, it’s 77 seconds long and goes, “YOU CROSSED OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE! / YOU CROSSED OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE! / YOU CROSSED OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE! / YOU CROSSED OVER TO THE OTHER SIDE!”.

‘Don’t Talk’ is my second favourite – great swing, toe-tapping Kinks-via-Teengenerate tune, and an insane guitar solo.

‘Telescopic Love’ is probably my third favourite – longest cut here by a margin of about a minute, rattling along with twisted (TWISTED, no less) metallic sound and weird slap echo like one of those early Neon Boys recordings, or something that might soundtrack a cyberpunk episode of The Sweeney.

‘Venezuela’ is my fourth favourite - a more relaxed number, with immaculately whacked Back From The Grave twang, paying perceptive musical tribute to the titular locale.

In conclusion: I really like this CD. It’s stupidly fun, fulla random, crazy noise, inspired, off-the-cuff song ideas and goofy four-track tangents, and it asks nothing in return. I wish I was in a band like this – sounds like a blast.

No web presence, so you’ll have to find your own merry way to this one (I’d suggest making contact via the protagonists’ other groups), but here’s a few soundcloud uploads.

Labels: Crawling Age