China Dogs’ debut EP is loud, brash, fast and oozing with hooky, aggressive choruses that don’t merely ask to be sung along to, but positively demand so under threat of removing your vocal chords with a pair of rusty pliers!
‘Modern punk,’ has over the past few years morphed through the various stages of street-punk, to skate-punk, to ska-punk, to hardcore …. even to emo, for God’s sake! However, London three-piece China Dogs have succeeded where others have recently floundered and evolved a sound that both completes the circle once again and also forces itself to sit atop the others in concentric position. In essence it is Punk with a twist of Today.
Opening track of four (and title-track) ‘A Social Blackout,’ contains traces of Eddie & The Hot Rods, but vocalist Rod Kitson’s style seems to mix both Punk and Mod and in that respect is quite distinct.
Strong as the first track is, ‘Small Town Boy,’ which follows, is for me the song with the hook most likely to ingrain in the brain. A song of frustration, it pauses for breath after about three minutes when it breaks down to slow-paced guitar and drums, before the vocals rejoin in refreshed vibrancy to finish. Vocally, Rod’s delivery bears a similarity at times to that of Danny Saunders from Glasgow band, Correcto. (A ‘strange’ comparison to make perhaps, but have a listen to Correcto’s ‘Do It Better’ as a point of reference.)
If the previous track wins the prize for ‘best chorus,’ then ‘Something Real,’ is the easy winner of the ‘guitar riff’ category. All right, so the main riff bears more than a passing resemblance to that of Gun’s ‘Don’t Say It’s Over’ from the early Nineties, but despite my punk leanings Gun could do no wrong in their early days. So to incorporate this and blend it with a punk delivery is very clever – or a very fortunate accident! Whatever, it’s a track guaranteed to get any rockers’ party started.
‘Bland Cynical Times’ is the final track of the EP. Like the other songs, there is nothing overtly political in the lyrics, but more of a comment on today’s society and the way we’re headed. It follows the same musical formula of the other tracks and whilst not exactly compulsory, punching the air with clenched fists is actively encouraged throughout this track.
It’s all pretty straight forward really. Unpretentious, energetic and in your face it should also be in your CD–drive.
//Colin Jackson