Warmduscher At The Hotspot

First, dear reader, I must list the members of the band that literally translates as 'warm showerer' (it's a German term of disparagement). So take a bow Clams Baker Jr., Lightnin' Jack Everett, Quicksand, Mr Salt Fingers Lovecraft (my favourite) and last but by no means least, The Witherer aka Little Whiskers.

Formed in 2014 as an impromptu house-party band, the original line up included Saul Adamczewski and Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family before their departure in 2018, reducing the line-up to the current five piece. This, the group’s fourth LP, follows on from 2019's unhinged but fantastically entertaining Tainted Lunch, which was recorded in just four days and featured Iggy Pop and Kool Keith. It was gritty, poppy and full of utter filth.

So, what of 2022's At The Hotspot? Written over a year of lockdown and produced by Joe Goddard and Al Doyle of Hot Chip, a coating of eighties funkadelia has been added to the raucous energy of their earlier work, without detracting from the core sleazy mayhem the band are happy to wallow in.

At their live shows the band wear crisp, white boiler suits on-stage. That deviant Devo look and feel is mirrored in the driving beat of 'Twitchin' In The Kitchen', where the nursery rhyme chorus describes the perils of scoring a zero food hygiene rating: "Damn I'm aching / Stomach turning / It ain't chicken / But I'm clucking".

Opener 'Live At The Hotspot' smiles sordidly against a shuffling beat, the upbeat melody betraying an unsavoury undertone. Single 'Fatso' has a beat that firmly nods in the direction of Cameo's 'Word Up', while 'Wild Flowers' takes the Warmduscher ethos to its natural home – an eighties funk sound married to lyrics that just about manage to squeeze in some words other than “fuck”. It even has the cascading ‘Miss You’ de rigeur eighties bassline run for crying out loud.

Highlight 'Five Star Rated' takes a more direct channel with a great hook and chorus that echoes early seventies Alice Cooper, before an unsavoury segue into the scuzzy funk of 'Baby Toe Joe'. Warmduscher clearly know their place in the pantheon of filthy rock, and the LP hits the mark perfectly if you fancy some punk, funk and profanity-laden disco. Just make sure you have Dettol and a wire brush to scrub yourself clean after listening.