Pound Land – Mugged
Cruel Nature Records
Release Date: 26/04/24
Running Time: 45:20
Review by Dark Juan
100,000,000/10
Music is a funny old business. How much of it passes you by and how much of it speaks to you – based entirely on you and your own mindset, yet created entirely by people who you have never met and don’t know you, yet they find the window to your soul and climb into it, sitting in the middle of your awareness and stirring your brains into dependent porridge. Such is the nature of fandom and it confuses, worries and charms Dark Juan in equal measure.
One of the bands (who most definitely are not charming) that has a grip on Dark Juan’s attention is Pound Land, a particularly gritty Northern Industrial Punk band that are refreshingly free from all preconceptions and whose music frequently is some of the nastiest, vicious music I have ever heard. They throw the kitchen sink at their music and it is a living, breathing, misanthropic beast that rails at the shambles that is British politics. They are the voice of the working class – the class that should no longer exist.
Let us fire up the proudly Socialist Platter Of Splatter ™ and listen to “Mugged”, the latest record and first proper long player from Pound Land.
Pound Land are the angry, snotty voice of the Northern revolt against the British government.
‘Spawn Of Thatcher’ has really a bizarre Psychedelic, Hawkwind-style improvisational vibe with a massively anarchic quality as the band sneer derisively at the “Cheshire set” and Thatcherite scum while saxophone squawks and jabs and cries. Clearly Pound Land’s politics chime entirely with Dark Juan’s own. On ‘Flies’, however, vocalist Adam appears to have been possessed by the living spirit of Jello Biafra, as he wails and wobbles his vocals over a growling, fucking raging bassline, with no pretension of singing, just letting out pure, unadulterated rage and railing against the unfairness of the system. Alternatively, visceral, semi-random, yet worryingly coherent ranting spoken word over something that only just qualifies as music is the order of the day at times, particularly on the almost 10-minute long ‘Shish Doner Mix Apocalypse’. Different characters are channeled and discarded and engage in conversations with each other over music that sounds like a bunch of human skeletons fucking on a tin roof. Their sturm-und-klang is intoxicating, bass-led and with no pretension towards virtuosity.
This, my friends, is the REAL rage against the machine. And it isn’t classically polite in the British way, either. This is the rebirth of the terror the upper classes felt when Punk exploded and showed them that the working class has power. The vocals reference that same, aggressive lack of concern with whatever the fuck anyone thinks that Punk had and that resonates deeply with Dark Juan.
‘Power To The People’ is peculiarly in touch with the mood of the nation at present as the vocals snarl and roar about “Being happy with what you’ve got, it being better than it used to be and you can be anything you want to be” with considerable sarcasm and more than a liberal dollop of loathing and deep, DEEP hatred. The latter part of the song referencing the fact that people are literally working until they die on the job because there is no way they can retire.
I can’t listen to Pound Land anymore. I am fired by absolute fury. My hands are clenched in balls of rage. I am incandescent and furious. Mrs Dark Juan just asked why I had the expression on my face that I did. I wasn’t aware of my expression, and Mrs Dark Juan told me that she had never seen such murderous fury and disgust on my face ever before. She said that my teeth were bared, and my entire face was twisted in hatred. Considering she has watched me face down Neo-Nazis and a drunken German football hooligan before and my expression rarely having moved beyond mildly irritated, this is quite worrying.
Truly, Pound Land are the voice of a disaffected and screamingly angry generation. Or they would be if they could get people to pay attention to their clarion call. The resistance and the rebellion start here. Dark Juan has heard their call to arms and stands ready to step into the breach.
The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System has sedated Dark Juan. The Patented Dark Juan Blood Splat Rating System is at pains to point out that the views of Dark Juan are not the views of Ever-Metal.com because Beth and Simon are far too wise to rant for nearly thirteen hundred words. It also awards Pound Land 100,000,000/10 for their distinctly working class, snarling hatred and withering social commentary.
Also, and this is very very important – NEVER TRUST A TORY.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Living In Pound Land
02. Spawn Of Thatcher
03. Flies
04. Power To The People
05. Pistol Shrimp
06. Broken In Two
07. Shish Doner Mix Apocalypse
08. Paralyser
LINE-UP:
Nick – Guitar
Adam – Vocals, lyrics
Rich – Bass
Jo – Sax
Steve – Drums
Jase Kester – Electronics
LINKS:
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