Moody, minimalist, mal-illuminated… well yes, we may have been travelled this way before. Yet however derivative such disenfranchised narratives can appear, there’s something about this Brighton trio’s uncompromisingly-titled debut LP that suggests something beyond a week spent in a bunker with nothing for sustenance bar early Cure and Cabaret Voltaire. Raw contours, evident in opening track ‘My Boyfriend’s Dead’, a single from 2013 that sets the mood, leads us down the stairs. And whether deploying banshee guitar or brooding synth, drum machine or live percussion, each track works as a counterpoint to the disengaged drawl of each vocal.
‘Transient Curse’ is Vienna by Ultravox relocated to an industrial estate on the outskirts of town;…
320 kbps | 65 MB UL | MC ** FLAC
…’The Ultras’ is all dry ice and discombobulation, whilst ‘Psychic Gobshite’ sounds exactly like a track called ‘Psychic Gobshite’ should. In other words, there’s little startlingly original to I’m a Bastard, and the production may at times be a little iffy, but oh my – it’s fun. Glorious Bastards, then.