#fuzzwalker

Vicious? Indubitably. Sid? How very dare you…

Plunger have crossed paths with Fuzzwalker before and been surprised and impressed [https://tmblr.co/Zc96bk2HtRQeR] so were happy to give their latest single a spin.

Hazy (b/w Behind The Scenes) continues the thread of spit-with-polish we first experienced at their 100 Club show: a jerky cinematic latinate rhythm (think the Clash doing Rock The Tango) driven by fierce guitar and petulant snarling vox bursts into a barrelling adrenaline-rush harmony chorus with a highly catchy hook, for a seriously loud, sweaty-basement-dive moshfest… but lush Spectorish production, a complex quieter breakdown with all manner of things going on at the edge of hearing and a crisp dead stop display a sophistication not normally found in the same postcode as punk.

The accompanying Behind The Scenes ramps up the energy even further in a short, sharp, speed-fuelled sprint through back alleys: jagged jangly garage guitars and belligerent vocals are propelled at a frenetic pace by chain-gun drums, venomous lead lines and frenzied tapping, yet even within its helter-skelter two-and-a-bit-minutes unexpected minor-to-major shifts show a stylish subversion of the ur-thrash form.

If you’re going to be thwacked round the ear’ole with something, better it’s a Gaudier-Brzeska bronze than a length of lead pipe.

Fuzzwalker... some spit; more polish...

Plunger might have spent the 70s listening to The Allmans and Van Der Graaf Generator but couldn’t completely ignore the Year Zero impact of punk and New Wave (not for want of trying!)

Fuzzwalker’s ebullient set (at the former punk epicentre The 100 Club) set the wavy-line screen-fade back to a time of youthful exuberance, teenage rebellion and energetic abandon. Cramming 10 songs into their 45-minute set they kept the short, sharp, shocks coming one after another. 

A very Echo Beach hook heralded Tail Gunner, its aggressive twin guitar assault underpinned by stripped back brutalist bass’n’drums and topped with spiky belligerent vocal, setting the mood for the night: from the jerky, choppy riff of Door To Hell and the punchy in-yer-face bustle of Little Lights, through the crisp mock-discotastic beat of Continental Breakfast and the air-punch-and-pogo garage rock of Wayback to the angry F.O.N. (no, we don’t know but we can guess) and insistent All In.

For Plunger Fuzzwalker’s eclectic punky pick’n’mix is best epitomised by the Buzzcocks thrashy pop-meets-The Damned’s power chords in Mind Blow No.53; Dirty Dog’s moody embittered Furs/Bunnymen vibe; and the marginally more relaxed eponymous Fuzzwalker which mixed wry sardonicism with spacey guitar noodling in a Squeeze/Floyd mash up (not a phrase Plunger ever expected to write...)

For all Fuzzwalker’s edginess there’s considerably more skill than might have been approved by the old school: some very unpunky guitar solos and twin-lead lines, and unexpected syncopated drumming and fluid bass betray musicianship beyond the classic three-minute-thrash!

With Albany Down’s Donna Peters and Billy Dedman on drums and bass, frontman Matt Brook and Carlos de los Santos on second guitar, Fuzzwalker have all the verve, the bile and the adrenaline of their musical forebears but with a touch more polish!