{"id":765,"date":"2018-11-24T18:10:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-24T18:10:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/?p=765"},"modified":"2020-04-15T12:46:20","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T12:46:20","slug":"louder-than-war-review-of-the-album-sleepers-wake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/2018\/11\/24\/louder-than-war-review-of-the-album-sleepers-wake\/","title":{"rendered":"Louder Than War, \u00a0review of the album \u201cSleepers Wake\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To suggest this album is overdue would be a slight understatement; this has been on route for perhaps 20yrs \u2013 back them this York based collective were being courted by the likes of John Peel and Steve Lamcq, not to mention a rumour they were gaining airplay courtesy of shock-jock Howard Stern over in the USA for their debut EP \u2018West Yorkshire Super Heroes\u2019, the success of which brought them to the attention of Mook Records of Leeds who in early 1999 released the \u2018Donny Rednecks\u2019 single to critical acclaim.<\/p>\n

Despite the praise\u00a0Percy<\/a>\u00a0struggled to maintain momentum \u2013 life just got in the way\u2026 band members fell away leaving the founding core of Colin Howard and Andy Wiles; new blood was recruited though all this did, musically at least, was to polish away those Fallesque grim Northern tunes of angst\u2026 thankfully \u2018Sleepers Wake\u2019 sees Percy re-gain their seismic edge.<\/p>\n

\u2018Why Are You Still Here?\u2019 is a visceral opener, thrilling in its chaotic energy, its all glorious thrashing guitars, crashing cymbals and a vocal that sounds like the perfect mix of Mark E Smith, and weirdly\u2026 Fergal Sharkey, \u2018Alice Stone\u2019 is darkly unsettling, set an almost laconic pace that lays out a desperate tale of identity loss, and suicide that rather cleverly forces lines including \u201cpre-occupied with the minutia of her life\u201d into the lyric\u2026 we are back to the more traditional sharp and angular \u2018Going Off On One\u2019, its all comfortingly nagging, and repetitive yet underpinned by a joyous synth that adds contrasting colour to the bile and bite lyric.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hep!\u2019 is a lo-fi classic, that would give early Membranes a run for their money in the shambolic stakes, a simple yet catchy bass line, scratchy guitar and vocals dripping with contempt. As befits a track titled \u2018Teutonic\u2019, the drums are driven with a krautrock tinge, all sorts of found radio noises hover in the distance whilst the single word lyric \u2018Teutonic\u2019 is endlessly hollered.<\/p>\n

\u2018Enlightenment\u2019 is a standout, an elegant keyboard guides you into a robust Fall \/ Half Man Half Biscuit type workout, a brooding insanely catchy bass, pounding primitive drums, and an almost shouted sardonic lyric that names checks both Fray Bentos and Skegness. \u2018Exploding Head\u2019 is an explosion of early 80\u2019s garage\/psychobilly vibe that had me thinking of The Vibes which can\u2019t be a bad thing, whilst \u2018Streets of 1000\u2019 is a heavy pounding track, that could sit comfortably within the Death to Trad Rock scene, it\u2019s all discordant riffs, coughed lyrics clattering alongside an intense melody<\/p>\n

\u2018Juicy Fruit\u2019 sounds like its nicked the bass from Joy Division, well if you are going to take inspiration take it from the best, nail to this a disdainful vocal, more thrashy guitars and a psych synth that meanders its way through the chaos and you end up with a freakishly interesting monster, that gets even better when the vocal repeats \u201cknock, knock on wood\u201d \u2013 yep, the 1979 Ami Stewart disco hit!<\/p>\n

It might have taken Percy two decades to craft their debut album, but after all that time they have created an eclectic gem that\u2019s full of vim and vigor and well worth further investigation.<\/p> <\/div>\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n \t <\/div>\n\t \n\t<\/div>\n\t\n\t<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 To suggest this album is overdue would be a slight understatement; this has been on route for perhaps 20yrs \u2013 back them this York based collective were being courted by the likes of John Peel and Steve Lamcq, not to mention a rumour they were gaining airplay courtesy of shock-jock Howard Stern over in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=765"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1171,"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/765\/revisions\/1171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/percyband.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}