A band of aging punks called ‘The Magic Sponge’ with a debut album entitled ‘Soaking Up The Waves of Life’ certain ‘hipper’ publications may turn their noses up at such eccentricity, but here at GIITTV we unearth the unheralded and champion the unheard of and this long player of rambunctious, witty and often rather toe tapping, grabag of playful DIY punky art pop songs.
The Magic Sponge is the sound of four veteran, rather greying musicians punking out in the stands of Brentford football club, a groovy sound worn of years of combined experienced. A sound that opens up the ribcage of mortoric post punk and stretches it, teases it and pulls it apart and puts it back together again again. Laced with vocals that oscillates pleasingly between the art punk sound of early period lip curling Bryan Ferry of Roxy Music, the cracked tunefullness of The Stranglers‘ Hugh Cornwall, add a side order of free form stream of consciousness black humour redolent of Ian Dury and his Blockheads and you are somewhere to envisaging the first long player from Magic Sponge, (the brainchild of The Phantom Sponge aka songwriter Perry Richards and given vocal life by Tim Whealen of Transglobal Underworld…) whilst not perfect occasionally lapsing into less refined discombobulated pub rock, nevertheless it retains throughout a certain ramshackle, world weary yet comic charm.
Opener ‘When The Flinstones Met The Ramones’ is the comic culture clash sound of the fictious reimagining of the moment when the cartoon hero ended up in a punk fanzine, the chorus pleasingly and predictably splicing Fred and Joey’s catchphrases for added catchiness (‘When the Flinstones Met the Ramones they sang YABADABADOHEY!’). Absolute highlight ‘Older By The Minute’‘s deliciously languid percussive stride is augmented by crafty guitars provided by Geoff Pace and deliciously knowing vocals that surveys the absurdity of growing older midst the wreckage of a 2014 crammed full of social networking and barron highstreets: where progress doesn’t equal improvement. The shimmering strut of ‘Born To Lose’ is a humourous deconstructed nursery rhyme metaphor for constant failure of life in the middle lane(‘I wasn’t hit with the ugly stick/but I am two leagues below Brat Pitt’). While the bah bah bah rock n roll of ‘I’m In With The Out Crowd’ augmented Perry’s asides are the sound of being perennially out of fashion, he’s been in loads of bands but none of them big in Japan, out of step, its an angular lo-fi self referential, witty view of life.(‘I’ve never been part of the scene/new movements don’t move me’).
Some of the cuts here are admittedly less successful ‘Naturally Off Course’ sounds a little clunky in this company, the lyrics not quite working with the rhythm n blues backdrop. While ‘I Am The Landlord’ is a bit lunkheaded after thought all round…
‘My Shining Hour’ is an affectionate tribute to 1977, stitching together references to The Lurkers, and the year when so many people got their chance to shine, it’s an upbeat strumming ode to the zenith of punk. While self titled closer is like mid period, low budget Rolling Stones retooled and scribbled over by a notepad chocful of witty stream of consciousness Bonzo Do Dah Band, playful, cheeky, and rather funny, tying together rock n roll cliche and tying them into a toe tapping DIY beauty laced with hammond organs, that unravels across the page…
This first long player from the enigmatic supergroup The Magic Sponge, acknowledges the absurdity of modern life, the transience of time, the perennial averageness and disappointments that befall of most people’s lives, the floating detritus on the sea bed of popular culture and the fleeting genius of music.Out of time but not quite out of their time. The Magic Sponge are soaking up the waves of life it’s nothing if not an entertaining, bumpy ride….
[Rating:3]
