Another Form of Relief

Every now and again, being a music blogger heralds unexpected rewards. About a year and a half ago, I briefly wrote about The Kabeedies on here. I haven’t really kept up with them since then, only really giving them a thought when the iPod would throw up one of their songs. Today I went to the Another Form of Relief Mail Centre (a PO box) to pick up a couple of things I had ordered (the Nosferatu D2 disc and the new Superman Revenge Squad record) as well as whatever the promo companies had sent over. I was slightly surprised to find a promo copy of the debut album from The Kabeedies in that stack. I likely would never have realised they had a record out without it, and that would have been a damn shame.

If there’s one word that comes to mind throughout this album, it’s “joyful”. Everything is so full of glee that it could easily run the risk of being utterly sickly, but it never quite crosses that line. Which is impressive on a record that uses handclaps, jangly guitars and extensive boy-girl harmonies. It’s all rather chaotic too, but if anything, that’s the one thing that holds me back from completely loving it. I like my songs to be chaotic, but here the chaos seems to be rather well thought out. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, and it’s a minor niggle on a superb little album. There’s a great band here though, and one that could go to the top of an already crowded indiepop scene.

The Kabeedies are a four-piece from Norwich who makes something that sounds like “pop music, but shit” according to their Myspace page. Obviously a comment meant in jest, but it’s about as far away from the truth as you can be. Featuring indie pop staples of handclaps, complaining that everything is “dead boring” and random calls to dance. It’s a shambolic two minutes, but a well constructed shambles. If this is what the shit pop music sounds like, who needs the good stuff?

You can download more songs from The Kabeedies’ self-released album/EP/something entitled Woman? via their Myspace page.