Dragged Up – Rapunzel / Black Carbon

If you thought all Scotland had to offer musically was Wet Wet Wet, The Proclaimers and awful Indie Pop dross like Belle & Sebastian, think again. A new breed of bands have been emerging that have been producing some truly extraordinary music, one of these is The Cosmic Dead, the other is Dragged Up.

I first became aware of the band when I reviewed High On Ripple for The Sleeping Shaman, I then had the pleasure of seeing them perform at one of Preston’s premiere live venues The Ferret. Furthermore I reviewed last year’s Blake's Tape / Clachan Dubh single for Clean Sheets, so when Eva hit me up recently regarding coverage for brand new single Rapunzel / Black Carbon, well it was a no-brainer. N.B. Black Carbon is exclusive only to the physical release and will be on the upcoming album. The band’s line-up is Eva Gnatiuk - Guitar & Vocals, Simon Shaw - Guitar & Vocals, Lauren Peters - Bass & Backing Vocals andStephen Mors on Drums. There are also guest appearances, ‘Rapunzel’ features backing vocals from Melanie Whittle (Count Florida) & saxophonist Sofia Ween (formerly of Mad Ludwig) while Black Carbon features experimental Irish viola player Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh. There will also be a number of live dates in September and October, as well as one next February, in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Shipley and Nottingham so if you live in any of these locations then I’d definitely recommend popping along if you can. Anyway...the music…

The digitally available ‘Rapunzel’ is of course a reference to the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, the cover art confirming this yet further. It starts in a heavily fuzz laden fashion of which Fu Manchu and dozens of other Stoner/Desert Rock acolytes would be proud. The difference being of course that none of those bands would have the necessary cojones to incorporate a saxophone. The promotional notes helpfully supplied by Eva also mentions James White and the Contortions, Sham 69 and X-Ray Spex. The latter especially rings true, the band for whom Bikini Kill basically owe their entire existence and despite not being a fan of Poly Styreneand co, their influence here is undeniable. The Vocals thankfully eschew Poly’s grating (at least to me) high-register, piercing yelp, to something far more sardonic and cool in the vein of The Velvet Underground. The track is brilliant because of its variety and just as you are getting its measure it slows down into a sludgy crawl roughly halfway through that recalled Black Flag’s My War particularly ‘Nothing Left Inside’; there are also traces of Love style Psych present too. An extraordinary piece which delivers a very effective punch to the solar plexus.

‘Black Carbon’ is longer, though hardly by much and is a good deal mellower. The track seems to incorporate a little Blues into the mix and apologies to the band for the comparison but to me it has an early Rolling Stones feel in the fashion of ‘Sway’. However unlike The Stones, its fairly minimalist and understated with no big choruses or Rock Star excesses which can be attributable to the group’s DIY Indie ethos. Jonathan Richman, Jad Fair, Daniel Johnson are all names that spring to mind, with those artists stripped down less is more approach. However, the tone is infinitely darker as opposed to the childlike naivety of those artists, there’s nowt ‘twee’ here, thankfully.

Kiss once stated you wanted the best, you got the best and that is what Dragged Up have delivered once again on these two brand spanking new tunes, brilliant.