Let us speak now of noise pop which, as we all know, is just guitar pop with a bit more reverb and general murkiness. Scottish bands do guitar pop well, and always have done, so it is little surprise to find that fronting up Laurence And The Slab Boys is a Scottish chap called Larry Reid and, equally unsurprisingly, he does a good job here.
“Mushroom” therefore has our Mr Reid – sounding not unlike a young Ricky Ross by the way - leading his merry gentlemen on a journey into doom with more than a little angst keeping it real amongst all those fuzzy guitars and colliding drums. Downbeat to the max, it is.
“Chinese Burn” seems a touch more laconic in its approach but still big on those guitars. There’s an electro beat this time and Mr Reid eases meaningful ennui into the musical equation. Nothing like serenading those black clouds to lift the spirit.
The more things change the more they remain the same, as they say, but these two songs are nicely done nonetheless.