K – O – N – G. Four little letters spelling out a short word that instantly conjures an image of something monstrous.
That’s the music of Manchester’ Kongin a nutshell – monstrous, huge and brutal. It is messy. But it’s a kind of ‘tidy messy,’ if you know what I mean. Like when your parents would get on your back because your room was a mess – and it was! – but you knew just exactly where everything was. It worked for you, and you were comfortable with it.
On first listen you may be forgiven for thinking that ‘Leather Penny,’ is all over the place and just a bit too shambolic. There is so much going on within its four and three quarters minutes that it may take a few plays before it dawns just what a superb slab of abrasive punk this is.
Frenetic drumming leads the way with the guitar work varying from heavy to quirky-discordant. The vocals fire in and out, not always saying anything in particular and not always distinct, but forever aggressive, menacing, shouted / screamed, and ranging from a touch of old-school punk to the hardcore edge of today.
There are going to be a good few bedrooms trashed to the sound of this. Superb!