The now infamous April 1993 edition of Select – now regarded as Britpop’s first clarion call – said it all with the cover title “Yanks Go Home – Made In Britain”. The feature inside would go on to look at a wave of up-and-coming British artists who were determined to push back the invading forces of grunge, a movement which following the release of Nevermind, had crushed the larynxes of almost every indigenous scene in the space of a few months.
For a handful of bands however Curt and his pretty eyes were a godsend; Therapy? had been gradually building a reputation through their blistering live shows, but despite the fact that nobody could work whether they were punk or metal, their second album Troublegum would make them unlikely Top of The Pops fodder. From Kilkenny, Kerbdog had many of the same attributes; a gravel voiced front man in Cormac Battle, a dense, riff-heavy sound that owed a debt to the thrash of Metallica and mischief.
Despite hiring produce-du-jour Jack Endino to helm their abrasive debut – and some modest success in the US and Britain – label politics meant it would be another three years before On The Turn emerged during the bitter tail end of Britpop, an album which showed some considerable song writing growth from it’s predecessor but was instead met with generally blank public expressions.
Now reissued on vinyl after decades out of catalogue, it’s high time to drink in the sound of what the hacks at Select will probably have seen as the enemy within.
Read the full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 