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Disastrochimp EP


Disastrochimp is the new EP by Sheffield-based trio Great Deeds, who thrive within a world of chaotic guitar riffs, jaunty bass lines, and jazzy time signatures. They take influence from a variety of sub genres - math rock, progressive, post-punk and post-hardcore - to conjure up a cacophony of sound through high-speed tempos and battling instrumentation.

Since the early 70s Sheffield's music scene has flourished through its alternative outlook with the help of such bands as Cabaret Voltaire, Artery, and Heaven 17, who took creativity from such anti-establishment movements as avant-garde and dada. Although Great Deed's influences might have changed, the prospect of creating do-it-yourself, impulsive music remains, owing as much to the environment as to the artists themselves.

Opening track 'Bulb' steers its way through ringing feedback building to galloping drum beats and frantic guitar riffs. This chaotic approach continues with 'Tongue', a cross between post-hardcore At The Drive-In and math rock Everything Everything, with anxious vocals and stop-start motions. While the band's notable math rock aesthetics are all perfectly in line with their atypical rhythm structures and clean tones, their rawness and energy hints as punk ideals. These elements are all mathematically placed to give us such systematic and electric compositions as 'Leger', boasting a tight and heavy rhythm section and perhaps their biggest chorus.

'Blueprint' has a sparse musical nature compared to the other tracks, with thin sounding guitar lines and a non-committal vocal range. 'Brick' continues to manipulate the post-punk basslines best likened to that of Gang Of Four and mirrors the complex rhythm sections of Battles. The track also carries the weighting of the disjointed strangeness from the likes of DEVO, a band who similarly refuse to take themselves too seriously, but moulds this into their own form of weirdness with angular melodies and progressive edges.

Disastrochimp continues to develop from Great Deeds first EP Teach Yourself Jazz-Punk Volume 1, freeing their eclectic influences and ideas and allowing them to move freely through their own creativity, an opportunity that only such unconventional ideals can bring. This EP works best when listened to as a complete piece of work, allowing the time for Great Deeds to draw you into their world for 14 minutes of eccentricity.