SCORPIO SCORPIO – Ith Zha Fith Zha (CD, Minge Recordings)
Posted: June 3rd, 2008, by JGRAMStraight away I have to come clean and admit that this mini album is a few years old now but only a recent discovery for me after experiencing several exhilarating live performance. Not owning this release until now ultimately is several years my loss as I genuinely love this release.
Spread over seven tracks Scorpio Scorpio is a mean motherfucker from Australia, very much in the Mark “Chopper” Read mold with no mould, a one man assault system with a twisted sense of humour and a vocabulary turns the air blue.
The life of a one band as described/explained by Leo Sayer many years ago is a tough and lonely road of existence. It is made even lonelier when you are selling drugs and performing bank jobs. To combine drum n bass with guitars in this manner truly is something of a criminal act, like an Australian Devo on crystal meth, packing to settle nerves.
Scorpio Scorpio is the king of the infectious blast of aggression, slamming/smashing electro music fires through in a lo-fi industrial style as jagged guitars like parchments of AC/DC feedback with hooks aplenty.
The real strength of the release is in the lyrical content that is spat out like bullets – this is pure poetry in its execution. Opening track “Utility (You And Me)” verges on pure pop perfection, following the announcement “fuckin’ turn it up”, Scorpio Scorpio calls out the listener “have a go” before using the basic genius principle of having a chorus including “na na na na na.” It just works!
With song titles as “Ayatollah Rock’N’Roller” and “Cobra (Knobya)” it would take a very stone faced person not to find humour in this record, the type of person that may have experienced a fatality at the hands of Mr Scorpio Scorpio himself. There are no innocent bystanders connected with this music, especially when “Cobra (Knobya)” is concerned.
The one sad flaw of this record are the high fidelity qualities, they are sadly lower than such a collection deserves. For some this could prove a spoiling point but for others this may even make the music.
Thesaurus moment: schismatic.
JGRAM
JGram, friend of the stars, chartered accountant and pie enthusiast, likes nothing better than KICKING YOUR SKINNY ASS by way of a carefully-timed half-nelson followed by the CLOTHES LINE! OW! So never, never cross him. His dog Snowy is equally rockhard and will bite your lim bs off in the blink of an eye. And then paw your eyes out for blinking when he's biting you.