Louche post-punk on Comidillo Tapes, a new Glasgow cassette label setup in January by Seb Rivera from various beloved local bands like Herbert Powell, Pennycress, Anxiety and yes, Current Affairs. ➨➨ Your singing ‘Treason’ by Teardrop Explodes in your dad’s Nissan Sunny, wrapping your prepubescent vocal chords around those round scouse stooorriiies, trying to hit the high notes ➨➨ Josh and Joan from Current Affairs used to be in a band called Seconds, maybe named after the 1966 American science fiction film directed by John Frankenheimer and starring Rock Hudson, maybe not. They had a great split album out in 2015 onSoft Power Records with JOYA that was a bit more Korg-and-Riffs™ garage punk and reminded me of one of my favourite West Yorkshire bands ever, Ruby Tombs. ➨➨ You blanch at the second person pretensions, but you’re one step ahead ➨➨ Seb’s guitar plays with a whole palette of 1980’s tones; Viv Albertine, Arto Lindsay, ‘Crocodiles’ era Echo & the Bunnymen.
In the weird PHDude music crit vortex, where people write endlessly about how nostalgia is shit but BBC 2 in 1983 was unbeatable, someone would probably make a joke about how ‘Current Affairs’ don’t sound that current but could be understood as part of a nostalgic optic of late capitalist retroactivity, but this person would be a wally and also wrong ➨ there is something particularly contemporary about the way the band draw on historically specific sounds and influences as a way to centre certain associated affects: disconnect, melancholy, conflict, letting go ➨➨ You turn the tape and it’s the bloody Bluebells and we’re not young at heart anymore let me tell you ➨➨ At its core the music’s propulsive and addictive joy comes from Joan’s voice - her hard vowels and blurred consonants, the moments when she hits a near-shouted punch - but also from the poetic lyrical fragments she’s singing: words that leave a taste not unlike the songs themselves, tinged with anger and sadness but animated by a sparseness, a tightness of rhythm and a sense of pulling through together:
Can I be your ally?
Your resupply?
I’ll try
More about: Current Affairs
