The Baby Seals - Tamoo Trance

The Baby Seals are a Cambridgeshire trio, Cambridge and Peterborough to be exact, who formed in 2016 and who comprise sisters Kerry Devine (Guitar/Lead Vocals), Amy Devine (Drums/Vocals) and their friend Kate Shore (Bass/Vocals).

Latest release, the Tamoo Trance 7” follows up from 2024’s debut full-length Chaos, an S/T EP and a split 7” single with Beverley Kills, both from 2017. Last year (soon to be year before last), saw the ladies tour with New Wave legends Bow Wow Wow, famous for being one of the late Malcolm McLaren’s best known inventions post Sex Pistols and for featuring at one point a certain George Alan O’Dowd, best known as Boy George of Culture Club, you may of heard of him. The band are signed to Trapped Animal, a musically diverse label, several of whose artists I have covered for Clean Sheets. Having heard Peter Culshaw’s beautiful and serene Surrender to Love, I felt it was time to cover something a little more rambunctious, especially as I’ve been jamming Corrosion of Conformity’s ‘Animosity’ in recent days.

The first of two tracks ‘Tamoo Trance’ according to a recent single preview on Louder Than War, courtesy of Ged Babey, thematically ‘offers a fierce take down of consumer capitalism and the effect it can have on us if we let it take it hold’. Kerry further expands on this “...(it’s) about noticing how quickly we get entrapped online into spending money, and spending the latest form of currency, our attention, and questioning how to break away from it. It’s about how horrifying excess is. The fictitious shop, Tamoo, which looks like it should come with a gamblers aware warning sign, stocks everything you’ve never wanted, and it’s not just your money it will cost you being there”. This is certainly something I’ve witnessed in recent days in the run-up to Christmas, unfortunately. Musically its pretty darn cool sludgy Grunge Punk in the vein of L7, 7 Year Bitch as well as the snottiness of The Lunachicks, I was also reminded of Glasgow’s Dragged Up with some of that band’s artsy sensibilities shining through. Truth be told, I was never thrilled by a lot of the bands from the Riot Grrrl scene, musically it was hardly mindblowing, while lyrically it always felt a little heavy handed despite the protagonists best intentions. The ‘Seals suffer no such fate, with music that is catchy and superbly constructed, while also retaining a keen sense of humour and humility. An excellent track that you’ll be jamming repeatedly.

‘I Will Panic if I want to Shirley’ references first world problems such as an M.O.T. which pales in insignificance compared to greater political and social issues. I don’t know, as a driver myself I dread having to communicate with garages and car mechanics (wankers), but I’m being factious. The longer of the two tracks, it nears the five minute mark and is a slightly moodier number which feels entirely appropriate when you consider the subject matter. Again it would be all for nought if it wasn’t for the fact that the music is so damn good, I found myself nodding along throughout, my attention never drifting at any point. Think a much better, heavier X-Ray Spex with a little of The Wipers Proto-Grunge/Post-Punk darkness peppered liberally into the mix. Although less immediate it is still a wondrous track in any case.

The band name may imply cutesy twee Indie but this is anything but. Rocking tunes with a sharply honed satirical lyrical bent that will hopefully get you through the torture of the Christmas season.