EP Review :: Cruising - Cruising

Cruising

Cruising

August 14 2015 (Tough Love)

8/10

Words: Linn Branson

The Dublin and Belfast-based four-piece Cruising recorded this debut EP in just two days back in January. But don't think for one minute that this speedy process signifies a lack of care in its execution. Neither does the fact that they take their name from an Al Pacino gay serial killer film of the early 80s, mean that it's a loudhailing shocker record. But it might give a clue as to where they are coming from: a cavern of post-punk, pop-punk and psych-punk.

In frontwoman Benni Johnston you have someone who is part Jehnny Beth of Savages, and part Siouxsie snarling punk banshee. On 'Safe Corridor' her standout rise-and-fall pitch is taken high up over the track's angular guitar riffs and meaty garage beat and a whacking big bassline, that effectively conjoins to the echoey garage guitar hooks.

'Cutlass', like 'You Made Me Do That', is changed from the original demo, kicking off with weighty drums and guitar - before it picks up and rips through the second half to close on a drum and guitar crescendo thrash. It's not as scratchy and raw as before, though still manages to shake the aural cells into submission. ‘The Spectacle', from the energetic drums and strident bass, the band show their rockin side, filling out three-minutes-plus with something as dramatically urgent as Savages themselves would be proud to own.

Surprisingly, it is the track that was last year's debut single, the scorching scuzz-fest of 'You Made Me Do That' (taken from the killer’s line in the film) and which first launched the band into the spotlight, that is one of the less impressive of the six works here. Now re-recorded, the new version loses some of its previous scratchy DIY appeal - the bass having been toned down on the intro and the sound cleaned up - though it's still filled with enough hooks to catch the net-full of riffs.

A small gripe in an otherwise excellent EP. But if there's one track to come back to, however, and which must surely become a single release, is 'Lifting'. Veering into psyched-out post-punk, with a faint 60s edge and motorik drive, its twanging guitars and tumbling drum rolls rise up over five-and-a-half minutes of sheer unadulterated pleasure.