LAST VICTORIAN DEATH SQUAD EP REVIEW

Last Victorian Death Squad who I will be referring to as LVDS, so I don’t have to write all of that out, have re-released their self-titled re-mastered EP with Shore Dive Records and already have sold out of Limited Edition vinyl and CD’s. Self described as “Purveyors of violent noise and blissful melodies since 2017 they are based in the UK & Latvia. I have not heard of this band but judging from the production and the performance I’m sure they were big where they came from especially in this day and age if you can sell out of a physical pressing. 

What’s really interesting about this band is for the most part it’s pretty standard indie rock in the vein of some great British bands of the 90’s but not a rip off or anything. Then one guy in the band, the guitarist is completely into My Bloody Valentine and Daniel Ash stuff like Tones On Tail. In some songs the craziness of the guitar makes it hard to concentrate on the rest of the song because it’s not just panned to a side, it’s dead center and not thinned out at all, it’s full on signal of high and low tones. On the track Alice it’s such an important part of the song because it fills up the lulls but on the later track Devil it is more like the rest of the song is an afterthought to the guitar noise. 

What I like and hate about this band is pretty much what I like and hate about the Mars Volta. It’s great songwriting with an element that some people might find annoying and a little bit self-masturbatory in the guitar that is squealing and feeding back through 90% of this EP. However, I do think it’s an element that adds some interest to the tracks like especially in Alice. I actually don’t mind the break where we indulge in the pure noise for a few moments. I just don’t think it’s everyone’s cup of tea. If you like Mission of Burma and how they added crazy tape loops into some of their music or how bands like Thirteenth Floor Elevators added the weird distorted jug playing into their songs you are going to love this. If you like My Bloody Valentine or Bauhaus, you are going to be discovering one of your new favorite bands when you check out LVDS.   

I gave a quick listen to their newer material and it seems they’ve learned to quell the beast that is the guitar noise and have it compliment the music more but I do see why this EP was re-released because even though at times these songs are rough they are the better set of songs. The band though, from my point of view, know what they are doing and they have their brand down pat. They use similar album art on every album, the noisy guitar loops add a Sonic Youth component to their 90’s sound so it’s not just a rip off of mainstream 90’s, it’s homage to the indie stuff of that era, and they use names like B, X and S. On some of the albums I see that most of the band members are listed as Bradley and on this one it says all songs are written by Bradley/Bradley/Bradley so I assume brothers or relatives are making this music. It creates a full package for a cool band you may have not heard of that deserves some attention. I feel like this is a band that My Chemical Romance fans can graduate to.

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- Sam Lowry, BMN Contributor

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