Album Review

The Siegfried Sassoon – The Al Gore Rhythm / Muscle Beach

• 18th Mar 2009

I’m not sure where this band has come from. I was going about my business when some guy lands the double a-sided debut single onto my lap and says, “listen to this, you’ll not sleep for a week”. Naturally my curiosity got the better of me and it has thus span on the office hifi to great bewilderment.

The first thing that strikes you about the single is its sheer abandonment of standard melodies. The kooky time signatures are the sonic equivalent of taking the scenic route; you’re not sure if you’re going the right way until you turn a corner and, in awe, reach your destination. It’s wonderfully left-field, not surprising as it was produced by one of men behind Foals, but it’s also magnanimously rowdy and overwhelming, with the occasional salute to Arcade Fire amongst the more oddball XTC and Wire references. This isn’t radio friendly music made for the immediate post-indie, this is something far more irreverent and exciting, something far more timeless and ultimately, utterly significant.

I worry how many people will realise how clever and brilliant The Siegfried Sassoon are as beneath the Gameboy charm and Casio riffs are two evocative, erratic and fantastically, eccentrically Engilish songs.