I’d have forgiven myself for what felt like I was falling knee deep into the brain of Julian Barrett mid-writing of the second series of cult classic TV series The Mighty Boosh. If we work this sound through an old boot, a crab in pain and somewhere between A and G with added oaky timbre is the ‘Shutka note’, something I’d completely made up, but that’s what this feels like, this feels like ‘Chaos, Mutiny & Magic’.
Opening and album title track ‘Chaos, Mutiny & Magic’ is a drumbeat and a bass line straight out of the deep house handbook, a dim lit spinning room of sounds that graciously align with each other, lyrically leading you down into the rabbit hole. Still reeling ‘Hand In My Pocket’ weighs in with early 90s grunge guitar with a baggy indie twist a la Stone Roses, the monotonous lyrics recapitulate but part of me still feels like I’m searching for ‘the new sound’.
The spouse of a world war spy, clinically insane, most successful, James Dean admiring long distant relative of a folk legend has a song written after him. ‘Dennis Hopper’ could be the man that you try to motivate for more or people you watch from a distance, continuously unraveling There is a Jimi Hendrix twang to that ever evident baggy synth/drum conglomerate with enough Derren Brown to take you under.
Into the middle ground of ‘Chaos, Mutiny & Magic’ is covered by a ‘Beetlebum’ meets Babybird, ode to a lady friend or companion of a Friday night. ‘It’s You’ is deeply introvert of looking into a pint glass, looking up in admiration, looking back down with every thought flowing through and then delving deep for the confidence then it flowing on. Take it or leave it, no matter where you are. ‘DB5’ is a shoot down, for your wants and needs, in a Bond track motion picture, walking along the street, Richard Ashcroft like down a backstreet to every spaghetti western you could think of.
‘Prenzlaeurberg’ (say that when you are drunk) pronounced Pre-nz-ler-berg is a borough of Berlin, steeped in history. One can only assume after a visit to said city the Shutkas brought out experience which subsequently painted this picture of a journey and what they had visited in the exile. Back up and out of the rabbit hole is ‘Glorious’, the light shining brightly in the wonderland that Shutkas spin you through closely followed by ‘The Shutka Shanty’ a self-proclaiming confessional of where they've been and where they are going. A social commentary, pushing you back out of the door, into the bright lights of the current day.
The Shutka Champions aren't what you’d find in your top 40, but place them somewhere between 1991 and 1891 and you've got the drift. A nice listen of a sunny Sunday afternoon on Southsea seafront.
