Elba Sessions

Not in Anyone’s Gang is a treat of an EP. Pop is something that we often turn our noses up at. However, where would we be without those key tracks that make you want to dance until you’ve worn a hole in the floor and sweat off the layers of make up and/or product applied before heading out to blissfully forget a whole lot of your worries and likely a whole lot of the night itself? Not only that, but really where would we now be without the punk-pop-ska insanity of (the never to be abbreviated unless you are happy to splutter M-M-a-t-Cuh-Cuh) Ming Ming and the Ching Chings?

The EP batters out the gate. It is impossible to not tap your foot to Season of Horrors; the spirit of indie disco will possess you. It provides an infectious opener with its non stop hooks, brass and steady building outro that teases and tinkles out. Secrets of Men maintains the spirit of the opening with a menacing bass that belongs in a dirty rockabilly song.

The EP moves on after smacking you in the face with their moodier tracks and onto lighter things. With Creepy Tales little vocal flourishes and a sort of silliness provided by playful guitar, running up and down the scales, hearken back to Madness more clearly than at any other point on the album.

Punch In The Face is verging on that cockney chimney sweep notion that developed somewhere in the new Millenia of indie music. As someone who detests the trend that had louts oom-cha-ing all over the place, its a decent offering. Not going absurdly over the top as a certain recent disbanded Scottish three piece did in running with a notion that tires easily.

But that little detour aside the EP retains its charm in its closing. Straighten Up! gets back to the bass driven momentum that got the five track racing and rounds it off nicely. The pulsing finisher is designed for closing a set. Electro pulse, cowbell, lasers – live, this would leave me drooling.