The New Tusk certainly caught our attention last month; firstly they played a great set over at Pav Tav during The Great Escape, energetic and punchy punk rock which sounded great mid-afternoon and, later in the month, they kindly donated a track to our compilation to raise money for flood relief in Bosnia. At the end of the month they released this, their most recent ep, Mine To Breathe although shamefully it’s taken a while for me to share my thoughts on it.
It’s pretty low fi, but pretty damn enjoyable – opener ‘Much Better’ starts with some nice fuzzy guitar, and the vocals give off an attitude which reminds me of Bear Vs Shark; a raw brutality that I imagine would work particularly well in a house party situation (note to self: book The New Tusk to play house party upon owning a house). As the feedback rings out, just two minutes into the track, the fast paced assault of ‘The Kids Will Graze Their Knees’ kicks in. It’s a blink and you miss it affair; one minute of yelled vocals, fast drum beats, speedy bass lines and fuzz.
‘I Feel It On My Chest’, the track which featured on the compilation, is a particularly enjoyable track – it’s short, again, but it packs a lot of energy into it, with it’s raw sound really cutting through. The closing track, ‘Holland’ is definitely a highlight – often on EPs the final track is an afterthought but on Mine To Breathe, it certainly goes off with a bang, the yelled vocals actually sounding pretty climactic as the whole thing comes to an end. It’s not the longest EP, but there’s some great music in here – it’s quite live sounding, and I imagine these tracks would really go off in a full living room. It’s available to download, but it’s also available on clear vinyl, which is probably the best choice you’ll make today.
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