My first run in with this, shall we say, "lively" five piece from Newport came just a few days before last Christmas, when I just happened to walk in on one of their live shows on a night off from reviewing duties. Within the first few bars of the band's opening number I'd wished I had my trusty Lumix with me as with their singer Paul poleaxed on a beer soaked floor blood oozing from a self inflicted head wound, this was one of those nights that don't come to your local that often. I've since found out however that this probably was what this bunch of pinheads would call "a normal day at the office", because Blowgoat specialise in full contact rock ‘n' roll that immediately provokes a reaction and demands you get involved.

So here I am six months on and finally I get the chance to catch up with the guys properly via this six track EP recorded with the help of Lewis Johns at The Ranch, and as I prise open the ice cool digipack sleeve and drop the disc into my CD player all I keep thinking about is I hope the key ingredient of my last gig before Christmas wasn't going to be lost here. That element of course being the limitless amounts of energy that Paul, Ray, Gould, Barry and Conway manage to unleash during a live show.

So a couple of bars of muted guitar and a snare drum roll into opener ‘Slackhole' and I'm sat here all sad faced wondering "what the fuck?" but that's before a wall of noise quickly pins me to the back wall of my office like a rampaging el toro, albeit this is one that comes complete with a crew cut hairstyle to go with his fuck you get out of my way attitude, and this fucker is screaming for my blood inches from my face. This is some ferocious music that's for sure and thankfully not one ounce of that energy I mentioned has been lost in a production job that Dave Schiffman himself would have been proud of.

Which rather neatly leads me into ‘Fuck The Bronx', which I'm guessing is more of a statement of intent rather than a slur on the character of the band the guys are oh so obviously influenced by, and is that a sneaky lyrical reference I can here in there too? Well All I'll say is with Matt and the boys seemingly happy to tour the world as their Mariachi alter ego right now there's a Bronx sized hole in my heart that Blowgoat fit quite nicely thank you.

Then up next is for me perhaps the standout track of this EP, the oh so eloquently titled ‘Yo Bitch...I'm Tom Waits', a track which is sludge heavy one minute and the next is spitting hardcore punk venom at all comers. Paul screaming the crooners name at the top of his whisky soaked voice as the band savagely rips through a chorus that involves a bizarre pop edge thanks to an excellent counter backing vocal. When these guys declare "you better run and hide ...you better change your locks" during a lead heavy breakdown later in the tune I for one am not going to doubt that they have the ability to snap at any given minute, because I've seen it happen already. Essential stuff.

With the second half of this EP featuring tracks with titles such as ‘Rhino', ‘The Purge' and ‘Misery Hammer' you pretty much know what the order of the day is going to be from here on in, and the reason I'm not going into each of these cuts in detail is because right at this point I think I have found the only hole I can pick within Blowgoat's repertoire thus far, and that is they don't currently have the variety (or depth) within the rest of their killer tunes to stand up against the likes of the first three songs here. Make no mistake though each of these three tracks is none the less brutal than what has gone before, but just like when I first got to hear ‘LA Muerte Viva' I just keep going back to the standout track (‘False Alarm' anyone?) and in the case of this EP that involves some bloke from Pomona California.

I'm not about to end this review on a downer though because Blowgoat are a very exciting prospect indeed, and with the release of this EP it is still very early days for a band who promise you some of the most uncompromising drunk ‘n' roll you'll hear this year, and at just £5 for a copy of this excellent debut release you know what to do, right?

Buy or fucking die!!!!!

http://www.blowgoat.com/

http://blowgoat.bandcamp.com/album/s-t-ep

http://blowgoat.bigcartel.com/