Topsy Turvy: Five Guitars/Pretty People
Out Now
Viennese garage rock of a glorious vintage, born from a flourishing DIY scene and following hot on the heels of their recent European and UK tours, a delightful slice of mutant robot joy for your listening pleasure. MK Bennett hits the keys.
If, like Slade in the 70s or Funkadelic at any time, a band’s greatness can be judged on their dress sense alone, then Topsy Turvy are already world class before they’ve played a note. And that’s before you even get to the name, a name reminiscent of childhood memory and storybook candour. In a crowded marketplace, a decent aesthetic is an important piece of the puzzle.
The music is naturally the largest percentage though, and on these grounds alone, they do not disappoint. Five Guitars is a surf, psych sensation, base ( and bass ) rock and roll, purely undiluted.Not a million miles from We’ve Got A Fuzzbox..And We’re Going To Use It, it fizzes and pops with psychedelic joy, a bruised glitterball of fun and confusion. Speaking about the single, Resi (vocals/guitar) says: “Looking back, I think it’s really just a loop of recurring thoughts, feelings put into words. From waking up beneath an oversized guitar collection, to life-changing decisions, to moments of forgetting the lyrics on stage. The mud of everyday thoughts had to find its way out as a song.” From their second album in 12 months, the excellently titled Fighting the Ginormous Macho Nacho, it is a fantastic preview of what could be an excellent upcoming record.
The song itself is a lo-fi delight, part Cramps and part Slits, which is not a bad place to find yourself. Opening on an excellent propulsive bassline before the slinky reverb of the guitars glide in, it soon becomes the handsome amalgamation of all those wilfully obscure Girls In The Garage compilations, an almost perfect example of the genre but also sitting outside it looking in. The echoed verses with the undermixed vocals give way to a glorious, thrashed chorus, intense and bruised. Returning once more to that magnificent bassline and an excellent cyclical arrangement, this is a fantastic slice of sharp Day-Glo pop music done with proper care and suave panache.
It is paired on streaming services with Pretty People, arguably an even better version of the same musical aesthetic, a wonderful Sonics-like exploration of a sliding scale, with a yelped and frustrated chorus, and a riff of majestic splendour. There could well be five guitars here, especially on the grand and discordant middle eight. More adjacent to 90’s royalty like Sonic Youth or Babes in Toyland, Pretty People is a real grower, and better with every listen. Both are more than worth your time, as far away from the ever turgid major label dross sold to us every day as it is possible to be.
And beside that space-age dress, designed by Lena of the band themselves, they exist in a very small group named after one of the Mr Men, reason enough to adore them.
Topsy Turvy’s Instagram | Bandcamp
All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram
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