Sometimes a band like Thigh Master has to choose a name to deliberately throw people off. It would be too much to evoke something serious or thought provoking because what they ended up with on this record is just so incredible, so close to perfect for me that if the name was taken too seriously it might have suffered somewhere else. Rest assured that they spent all their time on these tracks and threw a dart at this dumb piece of exercise equipment.
A-Side's "Head of the Witch" comes in with high treble chords and drums that pound from a far off, thin space. This bassline hardly has a low end, it's flimsy and forced into the treble so that the whole sound has a massive hold on me right away like Kitchen s Floor or Psychedelic Furs. Could be old demo sounding post punk band covering Pink Flag? The sparse metallic sound layered all over this thing with hints of a fantastic melody bleeding through somehow like Dick Diver. "I want your head" is the lyric of this late seventies Manchester sounding chill. The label and sleeve have all the mystery the name doesn't. I expected a goofier affair than this sharp and honest Wire sounding jangly rock. I can almost hear the phantom synth strings behind this because it keeps getting way bigger than it should while remaining as simple and distanced as ever. As raw as Love Will Tear Us Apart and has that same biting sentiment. I want your head. Primal and true.
B-Side's "Night Terrors" opens on a tom beat with reverb and the low end stripped away again - really the best sound. They have to be all together in that same room, same time. Maybe the vocals are the only thing they had to work out later in a bigger, harder room. God if Lust for Youth would open up a bit and take some lessons from Royal Headache you might get this harder dark pop of Thigh Master. It's got the distance and foundation of the garage sound that's on everyone's radar but then balances it with that post punk minimal sound. I love how it's blown into almost blown out highs; metallic but pitted and dull, you can tell this was the classic old good stuff though you can't find new nowadays and always will. "DD" is a faster up tempo track with optimism and physical push that might be the best one yet. That guitar is fed through metal speaker cones and the vocal has a doubled up paper cup texture and the the bass is straight with a slight goth chorus pedal. Clean and straight can they be this perfect with nothing? A huge sound that already feels already fleeting? How can I already be sad about a band's first single? Why can't I just hope they keep putting stuff like this out and not have to fast forward to the end of the relationship where I'm already broken up about these guys never putting together a proper full length? I have a problem.
When it's this good you actually remember why you needed singles in the first place. A whole bunch of this would be too much too soon. I can't handle it.
Get this from Easter Bilby if you live like I do in the OTHER country founded by criminals and misfits.
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