The Fighting Cocks - Music For Lapdancers [CD]

FGZ

October 29, 2008, 01:19 PM

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It is both a blessing and a curse that my first CD review happens to be from one of London’s least conventional bands. ‘Music For Lapdancers’ is definitely a post-modern statement by the Essex five-piece The Fighting Cocks as it ruthlessly eschews all musical boundaries in a record of almost random chaos. Attempts to categorise their musical style is nigh-on impossible but The Fighting Cocks can at least be seen as part of the recent tide of bands fusing both rock and electronica elements. Vocally the album listens like one long argument between snotty schoolgirls and one of their jealous boyfriends - bratty female hollers are obnoxiously retorted by guitarist MC Matyi. Although it has been stated before, the band conjures images of what Daphne and Celeste would sound like if they fell in with the right crowd.

‘Son Of A Bitch’ and ‘The Roof Is On Fire’ mix elements of metal and drum and bass in a concoction not unlike Pitchshifter in their early 2000s heyday, whereas ‘Theres Nothing Going On…’ and ‘Dontcha Know’ represents best DJ Assassin’s schizophrenic sampling with the intent of marrying gypsy folk to the unconsenting musical brides of ska and reggae. Once again the diversity of this band cannot be overstated.

Comprised of mostly three-minute blasts, the album appears to be the logical outcome of open-mindedness and an extremely short attention span. Unfortunately however, Its eclecticism has inevitably lead to a patchy album that is the sum of its parts rather than a coherent whole. Glimpses of genius do however flash like diamonds, for instance the tasty ragga of ‘Gangsta’ and the rock/breakbeat mashup ‘We Are The Fighting Cocks’ but it overall feels like the Fighting Cocks are still musically stabbing in the dark rather than battling in concise unison. But maybe looking for coherency is beside the point in a band who couldn’t give a shit for traditional genres. As a statement it achieves its purpose well, as the most powerful antidote to conventional, structuralist musical output currently poisoning the charts (and led by its spiritual leader, James Blunt).

Music for Lapdancers is out now on FGZ Records

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