Girls In Synthesis - Containment

  

  Hey guys, did you know that today is Record Store Day?

  I'm sure you're all aware of record Store Day, it's the one day of the year when over 200 independent record shops all across the UK come together to celebrate their unique culture. Special vinyl releases are made exclusively for the day and many shops and cities host artist performances and events to mark the occasion. Thousands more shops celebrate the day around the globe in what’s become one of the biggest annual events on the music calendar. This year it appears that due to the pandemic there are 2 such days, Saturday 12th June and Saturday 17th July. Here's a list of the releases that'll be dropping today : https://recordstoreday.co.uk/releases/RSD-2021-Drop-1

  Amongst the treasures on offer is a new mini album from London trio Girls In Synthesis (https://www.facebook.com/girlsinsynthesis). It follows on from last year's hugely successful debut album Now Here's An Echo From Your Future and sees the band returning to the more experimental nature of their earlier eps. It's titled Shift In State and it's available on vinyl from Harbinger Sound. You can get more details here : https://recordstoreday.co.uk/releases/rsd-2021-drop-1/girls-in-synthesis/

  If digital is your thing then go here : https://girlsinsynthesis.bandcamp.com/album/shift-in-state 

 

  This is the lead track, it's "an abstract, bleak and circular slice of obtuse-punk." It's atmospheric and menacing and doesn't sound a million miles away from early PiL. It's called Containment... 

Girls In Synthesis - Smarting

  There's a number of bands that when I play them on the show I can confidently predict the chatroom folk will fill the room with love. Girls In Synthesis are one of them...

  They're no strangers to this blog so hopefully you're already familiar with them; formed in late 2016, hometown London, line up John Linger (Bass & Vocals), James Cubitt (Guitar) & Nicole Pinto (Drums) etc. If you want to know more go here : https://mailchi.mp/6e8cebebf405/gishub or here :   https://www.facebook.com/girlsinsynthesis/  If you check out those links make sure you also check out details of a new ltd edition 7" featuring 2 new tracks and 2 live vinyl only b sides.

  They last featured on here a year ago courtesy of a review by Stefan Ball (https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2018/11/girls-in-synthesis-fan-flames.html) and return today with a killer track from their excellent new ep. The ep's titled Arterial Movements and it's available in 7" vinyl (ltd to 500 copies which are going quick and will no doubt soon be sold out just like their Pre/Post: A Collection 2016-2018 album) and digitally. Snap it up here :   https://girlsinsynthesis.bandcamp.com/album/arterial-movements

  You've quite possibly already heard the title track so today I'm highlighting the equally impressive second track. It's written from the viewpoint of one of the "haves" as he takes pleasure in the struggles of the "have nots." It's bleak and bruising and should make you feel anger towards those in society that want to destroy hope and inflict pain. It's called Smarting...

Girls In Synthesis - Fan The Flames (Review By Stefan Ball)

  I played the title track from London band Girls In Synthesis' on a recent Just Some Punk Songs show (it went down a storm with the chatroom folk) and was readying to post it on here when I noticed Who Killed Nancy Johnson? (https://wknancyj.bandcamp.com/) frontman Stefan Ball was going to see them in Oxford so I asked him if he'd like to combine a gig/ep review. Happily he was up for it and so I'll pass you over to him...

Fan the Flames by Girls in Synthesis
Self-released - released 10th November 2018
£4 digital on Bandcamp; 7" limited edition vinyl already sold out in presales
https://girlsinsynthesis.bandcamp.com/album/fan-the-flames-e-p
https://www.facebook.com/girlsinsynthesis/
http://girlsinsynthesisband.tumblr.com/

  I saw Girls in Synthesis for the first time last night, at The Library pub in Oxford. The Library's gig room is a postage-stamp basement with a black and white tiled floor. The ceiling is low. There's no stage, just a space at the back for the band, who are hemmed in nose-to-nose with the audience. It gets intense in there, dark and loud, and with the right band playing it's a killer venue.

  Girls in Synthesis were the right band. Their music is dense, hypnotic, claustrophobic, unnerving. The lyrics are political, existential, delivered with venom. And the gig itself, as a performance, was wonderful - so well put together. They made the venue darker by turning off the main "ordinary room" lighting at the band end so that they and we were lit by nothing but a couple of red bulbs. They started with the two mic stands - one for Jim on guitar, one for John on bass - set up side on and crossed, so that they were singing and shouting right in each other's faces. Songs ran together with a few spoken lines or noises to link them - they didn't stop to tune up or chat once - and at any moment there was sudden movement - Jim doing a kind of demented Chuck Berry duckwalk, John laid out full length and face down at our feet still playing, mic stands planted like flags in the audience. 

  "Fan the Flames", title track of their new EP, is a perfect example of their sound. It starts with feedback and ends with an echo over more feedback - noise is a big thing for this band. When the guitar comes in the sound is melodic at first, almost smooth, but under it is a brutal bass line, and drummer Nicole pounds out a simple furious beat that sounds as unforgiving as a steam hammer. 

  John sings the verses, Jim takes over on the choruses - "they fan the flames, they watch them grow, they drop the shit, on those below". And as those lines suggest, this is a political song. But it isn't just about "them" and how bad "they" are - it's more about the way the system we live in "causes grief and hate", because "it's power that corrupts" and "perfect are we none, we fall - we all fall". We can become "them" - the exploited becoming exploiters. 

  Comparisons to other artists? - being an old man I naturally think first of Wire, Gang of Four, even the more bass-driven and harder songs on The Stranglers' first few albums. Certainly they're anchored in that late-1970s early 1980s group of UK bands that were angry, angular, political and fiercely intelligent. Everything from the structure of this song to the way the lyrics work to the way the two voices interact sounds absolutely like they meant it, and planned it. 

  Buy the record, go see them. 

  This is Fan The Flames...