£15 plus p+p
Specially packaged in a tin
£15 plus p+p
Specially packaged in a tin
£5 plus p+p
STAHL42 RECORDS
The new material by Zen Baseballbat is a slap in the face, a wake up call to rip us from the stasis we’ve ghosted into since recession and Brexit took hold. Can’t go forward, can’t go back so we might as well just sit and watch the bombs fall.
No doubt some will say this doesn’t sound like a Zen Baseballbat album, but don’t believe them. The twins themselves will say it sounds different to what they’ve done before but that also is bollocks. The same driving bass pummels the groove, the drums skit around to remind you of the bands love of reggae, the lyrics are still poured over and the outcome still remains a difficult birth.
The songs sound amazing and deserve their place next to the heart string stretch of earlier albums ‘For Refund Insert Baby’ and the two up two down anthems of
‘I Am The Champion Concrete Mixer.’
STAHL42 RECORDS
Moving On: Tears and Big, Big Smiles
Emotion is expressed with only the mildest of reluctance; the angst shows through, along with a pain that goes beyond words alone. There is the maturity and reflection behind this album that comes with decades of experiencing it for real. Rations is able to depict tragedy in the happiest and most uplifting of ways. This music is a weapon to fight back.
Set in the context of our number-orientated existence, the band has a much more complex sound these days, but the mix is cleaner, and the different elements of the Kraftwerk synthesised whole are easily distinguishable. This album paints a truer picture of working class life than many of us probably feel comfortable to admit to. The messages contained in these songs seems to be “well, that’s the way it is, folks,” as the vocals are sardonically echoed by the keyboards. The band come across as comfortable with themselves; notice, how the song simply drifts, rather than step, into the choruses. Along with the new, more subtle, vocal delivery, the songs are full of pathos and sarcasm, is such a clever statement about the fragility of relationships.
I’m slowly caressed and converted by these songs. The depth of the orchestral accompaniments is just beautiful and there’s such a sweet description in the lyrics about how fumbling fear, anxiety and blind optimism can be in a relationship’s doing or undoing. – Retro Stefano
STAHL42 RECORDS
TROUBLE
YOU WON’T GET PAID
REASONS
BACKSTAGE PASS TO THE STANLEY
TAKE THE SKINHEADS BOWLING
Electro-spaghetti Western-reggae (think Kraftwerk, Big Audio Dynamite’s “E=MC²,” and maybe a bit of Yazoo) that the band has dedicated to the one too many, midweek disco dancers, desperate for a shag and falling asleep on the bog in a niteclub at 4am…ANTHEMS FOR THE KNACKERED