Shield Your Eyes  - Shield Em

How does one begin to describe the genre-bending fun and frolics of London avant-blues/alt punk mentalists Shield Your Eyes? Well, perhaps the following, rather laboured thought experiment may be of some use. Head up to the loft and grab the nearest LP; (any bluesy, hard rockin’ sixties/seventies release will do) and give it a good going over with a circular saw. Now take the fragments, recombine with shards of early Fugazi or Jawbox, (warning: do not try at home, unless faced with a surfeit of both time and disposable income) and spin at double speed. The resulting, beguiling sonic melange may well sound something like the aforementioned laaandon three-piece’s second album ‘Shield Em,’ thirteen tracks that, in the originality stakes, are head and shoulders above the majority of acts floating around the UK music scene today.

Whether that’s a positive thing or not is down to personal discretion, but to this pair of ears it’s a compelling and refreshing listen, pleasingly lo-fi and off kilter while retaining a degree of melody (warped and raucous as it may be) and rudiments of song structure that prevent this from veering into the realm of oddity for oddity’s sake. Soulfully scattershot compositions like ‘Ultra Soul,’ ‘Bad Tooth Warehouse Boogie’ and ‘You’ve Been Served by the Serfs’ stagger precariously forward, threatening implosion under the weight of their unlikely time signatures and unconventional riffery, topped off with a fittingly raw vocal performance; rarely an easy listen then, but one that, given the appropriate investment in time and attention, reveals a proverbial shitload of edgy delights. File under ‘acquired taste’ if you will... whatever you make of it, you won’t have heard anything quite like this before, solitary acoustic number ‘Mort Aux Ours’ included. Just don’t play to the Grandparents/In-laws/ neighbours in case of ‘Mars Attacks!’ style head explosion. Messy.