credit: instagram @whammoth
When I first saw Black Country duo Big Special opening for Sleaford Mods in November, I didn’t think much of them. After all, the musical model of “post-punk rants over primitive backing tracks” was well established at this point. However, as their set wore on, I saw myself enjoying it more and more, and over the next few months, after listening to their various loose tracks, I fell in love.
Sure there is definitely a Mods comparison to be drawn with the more ranted delivery, but they also have developed a sound that’s very unique in the field, incorporating various ethereal and bitcrushed synthesisers, as well as dramatic, soaring melodies, and despondent, tragic, yet humorous lyrics.
So, at the announcement of their long awaited debut album, ‘Post-Industrial Hometown Blues’, set for release on May 10th, I was brimming with excitement. So, let’s take a look at the numerous singles, to see just how big and special it might be…
DESPERATE BREAKFAST
One of the most impressive things about Big Special in my opinion, is how on one hand they manage to almost fully transcend the post-punk genre with how catchy their songs are, while also remaining fully grounded in the style. This song is a perfect example. The instrumental for instance has all the great hallmarks of the genre in a modern context. Driving, bashing drums are complimented by a sinister, slinking bassline to create a super infectious groove. Meanwhile, shots of dark, industrial atmospheres and brittle synthesisers help to add that perfect element of downtrodden dystopia, all building to a super intense, epic climax. So from an instrumental standpoint I’d say this is a pretty great introduction to the duo.
The vocals are really more where my point about transcending boundaries comes into play though. Singer Joe Hicklin does a very good job at straddling the line between punk aggression and catchiness. His more classic, ranted delivery cuts sharp as glass through the music, allowing his vivid images of grey, mundane, working Britain to really come to life. Where his genius lies though is in the choruses. Here, he switches up the rapid-fire vitriol, and instead employs the kind of moody croon you might find on a darker indie rock track, and it sounds fantastic, particularly as he takes a more dramatic approach towards the end of the track. It takes a track that would be relatively inaccessible, and makes it festival worthy.
SHITHOUSE
I must say this really was a great choice for a lead single. Catchy, punchy, wry, sarcastic, humorous, everything you’d want from a track like this. There’s a fair few more layers to it musically for a start. The combination of the pulsating synth bass, quirky electric piano licks and wailing guitars make it sound a bit like an 80s synth pop track that’s been let off its lead. Of course, the rhythms are characteristically unrelenting along with it, resulting in a track that, while dark, also sounds like lots of fun.
That same idea also carries through to the vocals and lyrics. Joe sounds highly animated here. In the verses he has all the gravitas of a commanding church priest divulging the ills of the world, while the chorus sees him shouting with all the mania and [] of a town cryer, and I mean that in a good way. Like ‘Desperate Breakfast’, it shows Joe is a man of many vocal and lyrical talents. His wordplay in the verses is very clever and stark, a great, funny pisstake of that one annoying bloke who keeps telling you how great his life is.
The few melodies he offers up throughout have an interestingly depressive yet graceful air to them too. Yet, it feels like this is also a track where the duo know there’s beauty in simplicity. After all, who doesn’t love shouting SHITHOUSE at the top of their lungs on a bad day. Also, the ingenious “Mickey Mouse/Shithouse” rhyme is something I never knew I needed, but there it is.
THIS HERE AIN’T WATER
Probably the most dramatic of the singles released so far, this track absolutely reaps the rewards of that approach. First of all, the music is nothing short of cinematic. Naturally, Callum provides the punch and the thump with his jackhammer drumming style, as we’ve come to expect, and it does a great job of supporting what’s atop it. Shots of grand pianos and sorrowful glockenspiel chords segue into a sea of brooding, granular bass and effect heavy reversed guitars. The way the duo pull off the balancing act between drama and psychedelia is genuinely impressive. That said, the shots of white noise and cascading synths and distorted guitars in the bridge also lend to a palpable sense of bubbling anger present in the track too.
In addition, this is maybe Joe’s most impressive showing yet. His spoken portions are damn near boiling over with misanthropy and lethargy, the words themselves delivered with the bluntness and harshness of the world he finds himself in. The sung portions also strengthen that sense of depression and desperation ten fold. Joe’s delivery is so raw, passionate, powerful, melodically distinct, and yet frail, making it sound as though he’s on the verge of tears recording it. It’s pretty moving stuff.
Lyrically, at least a portion of the track seems to convey the message of “life’s shit and it’s never getting better. We just get strung along until we die.” This might sound incredibly edgy and woe-is-me on paper, but in practice comes across as genuine deep tragedy. I was nearly floored by this song when I first heard it, and it’s obvious why.
BLACK DOG / WHITE HORSE
Remember earlier when I said Big Special occasionally channel some darker indie rock? Well, this track sees that idea taken to the nth degree, and I’m all the happier for it. Callum’s drumming definitely has a different dimension to it here. Rather than the wrecking ball bashing on previous tracks, as great as that is, he instead opts for a noticeably funkier, hi hat centric groove. Dare I call it “danceable”? I think so. What’s even more commendable about this track, perhaps more than any other so far, is how much they can do with so little. The melodic elements present in the track only consist of a deep, almost Joy-Division-esque bassline, dark, moody guitar strums, shots of incredibly subtle synths and organs, the occasional whistle hook, and the odd spot of vinyl crackle. Yet, despite how comparatively little there is, it reaches levels of drama seriously close to that on ‘…Water’ I mean it too.
As for Joe. Just wow. The emotion and power in his vocals on this cut is just amazing. The way he seamlessly transitions from solemn, soulful runs on the verse, to bombastic, projected grand melodies on the chorus is absolutely effortless. Indeed, with the moodiness of the melodies on this, he almost has a tinge of Rag N Bone Man about him, in a really good way. The soul, the sincerity and the drama present in his performance is just something else entirely. Not to mention that his sobering lyrics about the head on confrontation of death puts a real poetic bow on the whole thing. This really proves any doubters who wanted to label them as “just another post-punk band” dead wrong.
BUTCHER’S BIN
This track is a real song of two halves, a slow burner, one might say. That’s not to say the first half is bad, but just that good things come to those who wait. The track starts off like a classic, industrial post-punk rager, with dark, bitcrushed synths slitering over pounding drums. Then, once Callum busts out into a pumping open high-hat groove, it really starts to build some momentum. The melodies for this part of the track are again, like a few, relatively sparse, this time only making use of some Speak n Spell vocal effects and eerie guitar atmospheres. It’s a cool mood I suppose, but you know something more is coming, and boy does it.
Around the 1:50 mark, the synths and guitars fully come to life, providing a bright wall of sound under which classic 808 claps build to the upcoming drop. When it does eventually do so, admittedly I wish there was a bit more bass, and also that it hung around a bit longer, but the drums combined with the highly hummable synth riff make for a cool bit of dance-rock. Luckily for us, the track chooses to coast out on these bouncing rhythms in the last 45 seconds, ending it on a relative high.
As for Joe, he essentially just follows the instrumental’s lead, which I can’t blame him for. His rants on the verses about the mistreatment and poor attitudes towards the already disadvantaged working classes are perhaps some of his most biting, which is definitely a positive. His sung vocals on the build up are genuinely pretty beautiful too, might I add. This single definitely has some good stuff to it, but against songs of this calibre I suppose it’s only natural some will pale.
DUST OFF / START AGAIN
If anything, this song just lends more credence to my previous point. I mean this in the sense that, while certainly far from bad, very little of what this track does is something I haven’t heard already. What I will give it is that it’s maybe the closest to metal the duo have gone so far. The slow, stomping, sledgehammer drums nicely underscore some relatively subtle chugging guitar riffs. Meanwhile the choir-like synthesisers and white noise textures hanging in the background do quite nicely to develop this underlying feeling of evil.
Another thing to its credit is that while Joe’s subject matter about the mistreatment of the everyman and wearing down of individuality is nothing new, his delivery and imagery is as savage and vivid as ever, with his ethereal melodies on the chorus also working well, even if the novelty has worn off a bit. There’s also a particularly nice emphasis on word play in the lyrics this time around.
All that be as it may, the base this track operates off of seems a tad paint by numbers for them. Punchy drums, bitcrushed synths, shots of odd, supernatural effects etc etc. It’s decent but nothing new. Safe to say the finer details really lift this track up, because without them, it would be fairly nondescript, a criticism that becomes even more pronounced given it’s one of seven singles.
TREES
While not being entirely revolutionary, there’s just some things about this track that make it very enjoyable. It seems to be a track about the struggle of the everyday, suffering through a crap job just to buy a bit of weed. The lyrics put that across in a fairly straightforward way, but the vocals really bring the personality out.
Not only are the hooks on the chorus deceptively anthemic given how understated they are, but also the characterful bits of scatting help to add some well needed character and what seems like subtle humour to proceedings (if lyrics about masturbation didn’t do that already). Incidentally, these lyrics combined with Joe’s animated and descriptive narration almost frame him as the voiceover for a teen coming of age film.
Indeed, the music on this track feels like an end credit moment too. A guy, jumping on the bus on the last day of term to meet his buddy’s in the park, conveyed on Callum’s part by a steady, subtle kick beat and dark, subtly building guitars, bass and synths, quietly fostering an air of anticipation. When the “park meeting moment” does eventually arrive, it works as a great cap-off. Suddenly you get these bright, summery organ chords and dramatic, euphoric vocals soaring over a climactic, cymbal heavy beat. It’s one of very few genuinely feel-good moments, and it’s awesome because of it. A short, but very sweet ending to a cool little track. It might not be the most mind blowing, but my god it has serious charm.
So, given what I’ve said, what do I think we can expect when the album sees its release? I’ll say this, they might not have all been stone cold candidates for best single or anything like that, but even the lesser moments gave a lot of modern post-punks a run for their money. Given the fact that we essentially have half the album in front of us, I think I can quite confidently say that when May 10th rolls around, we’ll have a serious contender for album of the year.
‘Post-Industrial Hometown Blues’ is set for release on May 10th via SO Recordings. You can pre-order it here. Big Special are also touring the UK and Europe throughout 2024. You can find all dates below.
See the artwork and track list for ‘Post-Industrial Hometown Blues’ below:
1. BLACK COUNTRY GOTHIC
2. I MOCK JOGGERS
3.DESPERATE BREAKFAST
4. SHITHOUSE
5. THIS HERE AIN’T WATER
6. MY SHAPE (BLOCKING THE LIGHT)
7. BLACK DOG / WHITE HORSE
8. BROADCAST: TIME AWAY
9. iLL
10. MONGREL
11. BUTCHER’S BIN
12. DUST OFF / START AGAIN
13. TREES
14. FOR THE BIRDS
15. DiG!
Tour Dates:
- TUESDAY 7 MAY, Liverpool, UK, District
- WEDNESDAY 8 MAY, Leeds, UK, The Key Club
- THURSDAY 9 MAY, Birmingham, UK
- FRIDAY 10 MAY, Glasgow, UK, King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
- SATURDAY 11 MAY, Liverpool, UK, The Jacaranda
- SUNDAY 12 MAY, 12:00 PM, Bristol, UK, Rough Trade Bristol
- SUNDAY 12 MAY, 7:00 PM, Bristol, UK, Strange Brew
- TUESDAY 14 MAY, Nottingham, UK, Rough Trade Nottingham
- WEDNESDAY 15 MAY, Brighton, UK, The Great Escape 2024
- THURSDAY 16 MAY, Camden, UK, Jazz Cafe
- SATURDAY 18 MAY, Manchester, UK, The Deaf Institute
- MONDAY 20 MAY, Limerick, Ireland, Kasbah Social Club, Dolan’s
- TUESDAY 21 MAY, Dublin, Ireland, The Workman’s Cellar
- WEDNESDAY 22 MAY, Belfast, UK, Ulster Sports Club
- THURSDAY 23 – SUNDAY 26 MAY, Bearded Theory Festival 2024, Catton Hall, Walton-on-trent, UK
- MONDAY 27 MAY, Amsterdam, Netherlands, Paradiso Kleine Zaal
- TUESDAY 28 MAY, Eindhoven, Netherlands, Effenaar
- THURSDAY 30 MAY, Jour 1 Block Party Festival 2024, Supersonic, Paris, France
- FRIDAY 31 MAY, Pass 3 jours Block Party Festival 2024, Supersonic, Paris, France
- SATURDAY 1 JUNE, Dauwpop Festival 2024, Dauwpop, Hellendoorn, Netherlands
- FRIDAY 28 JUNE, Worthy Farm, UK, Glastonbury Left Field
- FRIDAY 26 JULY, Low Festival 2024, Ciudad Deportiva Guillermo Amor, Benidorm, Spain
- SUNDAY, 28 JULY, – Latitude Festival, Suffolk, UK
WEDNESDAY 7 AUGUST, Luxembourg, Luxembourg, DEN ATELIER (With Pixies) - SATURDAY 10 AUGUST, Prague, Czech Republic, Forum Karlín (With Pixies)
- TUESDAY 13 AUGUST, Helsinki, Finland, House of Culture (With Pixies)
- WEDNESDAY 14 AUGUST, Helsinki, Finland, House of Culture, With Pixies
- THURSDAY 15 – SATURDAY 18 AUGUST – Green Man Festival, Bannau Brycheiniog, UK
- FRIDAY 23 AUGUST, Reading Festival 2024, Richfield Avenue, Reading, UK
- SATURDAY 24 AUGUST, Leeds Festival 2024, Leeds Festival, Leeds, UK
- THURSDAY 29 AUGUST – SATURDAY 01 SEPTEMBER – End Of The Road Festival, Dorset, UK
- FRIDAY 6 – SUNDAY 8 SEPTEMBER, Surfana Festival 2024, Unknown venue, Bloemendaal aan Zee, Netherlands
- SATURDAY 30 NOVEMBER, London, UK, O2 Forum Kentish Town
