- It's taken over twenty years for Melbourne via Hobart band Little Uglyr Girls to release an album documenting their on-again, off-again musical legacy. Their long-anticipated debut self-titled record finally sees its release with the help of long time fans of the band, Chapter Music. Comprised mostly of tracks that have existed since the early '90s, from unreleased recording sessions later on in the decade, resurrected with the help of new sessions in recent years. Surprisingly, there's little hint of lost time, with the immediacy of the record being felt from the very start.
Tractor kicks off the album with an expressive burst of thumping drums before Linda Johnston's impassioned vocals issue a call to arms for the rest of the band. A propulsive instrumental hook kicks in with guitar and bass pushing against the stubborn thump of the drums. It’s exciting to hear the drums and vocals given space to play off each other, the guitar often providing only moody, minimal accompaniment. It can be a hard coupling for most bands to make work, but Little Ugly Girls do it exceptionally well, with Tractor setting the scene for the later Storm After Storm, where the colourfully rhythmic and dynamic interplay of the vocals and drums is realised over the whole length of the track.
The record dips in and out of dissonance and harmony, never resting on one approach to an effective combination of noise. The moody slide guitar lines of Slip dip in and out over a constant rhythmic barrage, backing the tormented lyrical cycles. The Pit drags you through a swamp of heavily on dissonant sludge, while tracks like Jimmeh or Snap dance around through catchy vocals and instrumental hooks. Repetition is another effective tool in the band arsenal, often offering slight detours on every rephrasing, particularly on the relative epic Vinegar whose demanding lyrical cycles refuse to be drowned out over the near six minute track of building sizzling guitars and crushing rhythms.
Little Ugly Girls make a good racket, surprisingly well recorded in its raw and passionately lively character, barely showing any signs of its age or of recent alteration. it recalls the milieu of punk and noise rock of the '90s, particularly the output of notable labels like Red Eye, Touch And Go and Dischord at the time, with elements that blend the rhythmic sensibility and harmonically dissonant guitar work of bands like Nation Of Ulysses and The Jesus Lizard. However Little Ugly Girls don't sound just like a band of their time, their music as it's presented on record is as invigorating and exciting as it could ever be.
- Jaden Gallagher.