THE LOUD - HARRIS SHUTTER
Payper Tiger Records

You certainly can’t fault The Loud when it comes to packaging – a nicely folding out sleeve with odd little inserts, this is a tasty looking… erm… mini LP? EP? I’m not sure, but at 17 minutes and six tracks (listed on the sleeve as Side A and Side B), this is a solid introduction to their music.

And the music is an impressive head-on collision of Sixties garage punk, psychedelia and 1970s glam rock, with an inescapable T Rex influence (There’s a Bomb in the House particularly sounds like a Marc Bolan pastiche) mixed with the likes of The Sonics and the 13th Floor Elevators, the odd whiff of the Jesus and Mary Chain and with a certain Northern swagger thrown in for good measure If they don’t quite have the songs to live up to the sound, that’s no big deal – they manage to bluff their way through, and as their name suggests, are loud enough to bludgeon their way past any complaints.

In fact, opener Amy’s Gonna Get You is a cracking little number, and Avida Dollars has a funky, bluesy groove to it that should get even the most reluctant audience member dancing at gigs. Just two highlights on a generally impressive album (or whatever it is). Fuzztastic!.

DAVID FLINT

BUY IT NOW (UK)