SLUG – RIPE

Who needs rules? On first impressions, North East songwriter Ian Black’s new project SLUG certainly doesn’t. Debut album RIPE is a half-hour psych ride that fizzes with idiosyncrasy as Black races through three minute fancies that are gleefully unbound by genre or taste.

Broody opener Grimacing Mask little prepares us for the hodgepodge to come, as single Cockeyed Rabbit Wrapped In Plastic mashes a squelchy sludge rock jam with overdubbed Queen harmonies. The withering Eggs and Eyes is more straightforward, but even Black’s vocal line in that apes Kylie Minogue’s Love At First Sight, and Greasy Mind is a suspicious funk track topped off by a shrieking guitar solo.

RIPE’s second half is only a slightly calmer affair with Running To Get Past Your Heart’s distorted bass bongo brilliance sandwiched by two instrumentals, the steel pan lullaby Weight of Violence and the dreadfully titled Peng Peng, the type of starry-eyed piano ballad that one can imagine hearing on the deck of a cruise-ship. Closer At Least Show That You Care is the most outlandish track of the lot, Black and his bandmates chanting the song’s name over campy horror soundtrack bass stabs. RIPE’S concise run time and bizarre, scattergun nature leaves it feeling emotionally lightweight, but Black more than makes up for this with his unpredictable sense of playfulness. Imagine what he could do if he reined his imagination in.