Recorded in Rochester, Kent, appropriately a headcoat’s throw from Chatham, this wild garage/surf/sci fi/psych ride has all the hallmarks of a Childish production. It has all the hallmarks of a band who have spent serious time studying The Kinks, the B52s, and The Cramps. Above those things though, it has the hallmarks of a band riddled with ambition.
Palooka 5 are from deepest Somerset. The 2020s feels like a time for rural-based musicians to find their wings and this is a prime example. The world has changed. Landscapes have been altered forever.
MetroKino is a new soundtrack to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis, ninety-eght years old and still relevant in the way that science fiction has a way to be. The band are touring it, playing along to the 1980s truncated version (a mere eighty-three minutes) leaving the original 153 minute monster open to any ambitious grindcore or unambitious prog band to tackle. This album, released by Spinout Nuggets, is the edited version, down to a strong forty minutes.
Palooka 5, up to now, have been a riotous surf rock band tearing it up at Scooter Rallies and all-day garage rock shindigs up and down the country. Releasing 7”s and albums. Happy. Content. But maybe not all bands like to be stuck in a box. Their need to escape such confines has certainly materialised here. From top to bottom this record sees the group stretching out and embracing change. I hear bands from Mogwai to Hawkwind, from American Analog Set to Man or Astroman. It even has the feel of Boards Of Canada in some of the vocal textures. In fact, the vocal treatment is perfect: the slightly haunted vocoder hinting at the industrialists calling down at the workers, the human machines powering the city of Metropolis. There’s a melancholy on show at the politics and the strive for change. The vocal is pure sci-fi.
They hit upon a Hawkwind groove on ‘Evil Machine’ and shower it in a surf rock dressing. It really works. There’s a mood to ‘Give The Robot Your Face’, arguably one of the songs of the year, that perfectly captures all that’s needed from a soundtrack. It has a touch of John Carpenter’s Escape From New York in the first half, then breaks into a freakout not unlike one of the more ripping tunes from Beefheart’s Safe As Milk.
‘Torschlusspanik’ reminds the audience this is a band well schooled in Dick Dale. The drums kick in with the classic surf beat shuffle, the organ and guitars are on board with the go-go dance vibe, but it’s the vocal that adds the creep that’s needed. The creep that keeps it in line with the soundtrack remit. You just have to love the guitar twang. You can’t argue with a theremin flying with abandon, saucer-like, over the landscape. I love the use of chorus on the bass guitar, so beloved of the current crop of Oi Division bands – all tipping their hat to the second Blitz album. All these quirks and tweaks make this album work. They make this album swing.
The mixture of sounds on this record works in a way that surprises. Palooka 5 have somehow conjured up a genuine work of joy and positivity, taking from both the world they come from and the world they’re heading towards. I’m not sure there’s much more exciting a thing to be found in music than capturing a band mid-turn, as they embrace the whole world into their sound. This is a fully-rounded album and a well-aimed soundtrack. The perfect combination.
