by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
I was only introduced to the music of Leeds’ Beige Palace last week but I’ve been listening obsessively for about six days and I’m not stopping now. The trio play their own abrasive and minimalist brand of noise rock, post-punk, and brilliantly weird art-rock. Set to release their full length debut, Leg, on April 5th via the excellent Buzzhowl Records, the band’s first single “Ketchup Dirt” was sinisterly hypnotic and bare bones until you get to the vocals, and everything you expected is shaken and deranged. It’s not particularly aggressive, Beige Palace can knock you off your axis without overt chaos, it’s the small decisions and no-wave tendencies that really shine through the sludge.
On the band’s second single, “Illegal Backflip,” the trio slink through a similarly sparse and desolate rhythm, dragging itself forward with mangled guitar tones and a polyrhythmic beat delivered with a stuttered pacing. There’s a degree of Slint, a touch of June of 44, and even maybe a few Kong references in the slow sprawl and detached progressions, but Beige Palace create disorienting punk in their own primal way. Kelly Bishop’a (vocals/keys) words don’t exactly float over the mix or between the empty spaces so much as they stretch and stick like super glue, pulling every syllable to its breaking point, as the band’s tightly wound carnage coils beneath.
Beige Palace’s Leg is out April 5th via Buzzhowl Records.