Album Review
Fight Like Apes – Whigfield Sextape EP
There is no way that there could ever be more than one Fight Like Apes. They live on the finer side of corny, express an essential joy and have the musical and artistic style and quality to take one more step forward and rise above the agit-indie pop status they appear to have held for quite some time.
True to form, the three-piece pulls you in with their kooky titles, before arresting you with some remarkable vocals and slithery electronica. Who could not be intrigued by the title ‘Whigfield Sextape’, the EP released on Alcopop! Records on May 12.
If you do not know the history of the band’s album and song titles, then work your way from ‘David Carradine Is A Bounty Hunter Whose Robotic Arm Hates Your Crotch’, an EP released in 2007, all the way to 2011 album, ‘The Body of Christ and The Legs of Tina Turner’, and you have the jist.
The scene of silliness set by the title gets more so with the video that accompanies Crouching Bees, the first of the four songs on the latest release. A jolly ditty, filmed in a post-industrial landscape that ends with a soaked, harbourside resurrection of heroine Mary-Kate ‘MayKay’ Geraghty (vocals and synth) to a crude splattering of terribly colourful paint squeezed straight from the tubes.
Aside from the severity and the sheer bleakness of the landscape, to say nothing of the sadly comical bloke dressed as a large grey squirrel, this one appears a jolly song, although I struggle for the meaning. Maybe there is none, in tune with the B Movie titles the band plucks out and plonks almost randomly onto its now lengthy song catalogue.
“Why won’t you let me scold you, why won’t you let me have my say… Why do you look at me that way” is released in sharp, clear and strong vocals that sit above a steady backbeat and frequently distorted electronic sounds. The clearly disenchanted squirrel blows stuff up before our comically abstract hero finds his lady, or is it the object of his desire, or is it nothing to do with his forlorn yearnings? And yes, there is an electronic bee buzz that lightly smothers and irritates in the background.
Song number two, ‘bwah!’ finds MayKay adopting a cod-American accent, and reminds of Cyndi Lauper. The requisite distortion and electronic tinklings are present. The toe tapper next up that is ‘The Hunk and The Fun Palace’ is a story so remarkable that, “The residents had never seen the like; they got the manuals out.” The message? After “fighting all the way to the top; roll over, play satisfied… I think I could see this all along”. As usual, what the band have to offer is well produced and dressed up in a zither of electronics.
The EP culminates in ‘Tyson’, which slows the pace and calms the nerves, opening like a music lesson for an early-grade piano player. But the lyrics are not quite so relaxed and reveal the disturbing edge that scratches just below the surface of all four songs. “I am Tyson’s dark place: abandoned building, rummagings… A place to bury my sore head… Where’d it all go?” An amusing electronic bop, like being followed by a spaceship police car, follows the dark lyrics of the intro. Tyson ends simply with the demand and request, “Don’t leave this band; you’ll go insane.”
Why would you possibly want to?
Fight Like Apes are from Dublin & Kildare, Ireland and were named the Fourth best Irish musical act of their generation by The Irish Times in 2009. MayKay is joined by Jamie ‘Pockets’ Fox (keyboards and vocals) and Lee Boylan (drums), and another album is due out this month.
– Richard Jory
Venue: Whigfield Sextape EP
Support Band: Alcopop Records