Apparently discovered by Domino label boss Laurence Bell when they played his local boozer, the Archie Bronson Outfit may prove to be dark horse for a label that already boasts crowd favourites Franz Ferdinand on an increasingly mouth-watering roster.
Not that there's much similarity between the two bands aside from a shared home and an art school background. While Alex Kapros' mob are already careering towards a glamorous future, the trio of Sam Windett, Dorian Hobday and Mark Cleveland are seemingly stuck in a far murkier place. Not that that seems such a bad place to be - for the listener anyway.
"Fur" is one of those albums that demands several listens. The first impression is one of blurred desperation as the band struggle to get out of a primordial swamp of their own making. Filthy guitars, thunderous drums and fuzzy vocals strike up a three-way fight for the medals, often, it seems, at the detriment of the actual songs.
This overwhelming feeling of murkiness is only enhanced by the very much one-take production technique of Kills' frontman Hotel which makes the recent output of Toe Rag studios sound like a Muse album. Essentially capturing the band in their live environment, it bristles with unfocussed energy.
But, give it a few listens, and the actual songs start to reveal themselves. The trio has so often proved the perfect equation to rock nirvana in the past (think: Hüsker Du, The Jam, The Police and, erm, Nirvana) and so it proves here. The Archies may not be in such illustrious company yet, but they are already able to summon up the kind of raw power that often gets lost when you've got an extra member dicking around.
And in "Armour For A Broken Heart" they've also written a bona fide punk rock classic too - direct and simple (there's barely ten lines in the whole song) but brutal enough to find it's way to the bullseye. "Time can eat you up/Living is an art/When your heart is dark," sings Windett like a man hurtling down a particularly hairy rollercoaster ride.
There's fragility amidst the fury too. The sparser guitars on "On The Shore" actually give Windett voice some well deserved breathing space and he responds with a weary sigh of melancholy. The album is dedicated to "the girls that Broketh our hearts" and it sounds like these boys have had them broken more than most.
By the seventh listen about 75% of it is sounding fantastic and you're left thinking it's one of the better releases of the year so far and maybe there's method in their (sonic) madness after all.
A great find for Domino and smarter than your average bar band.
