‘Jupiter Fist’ is the new single from Boygirlanimalcolour, released especially for International Cassette Store Day, and with a limited run of only 50 tapes, you’ll want to get your hands on a copy soon before they disappear.
Boygirlanimalcolour hark back to the ‘90s emo sound, with crackling rhythmic stop/start guitars giving way to hanging chords and quiet verses driven by some busy drumwork, reminiscent of Built To Spill and older Death Cab albums, sitting gently on top are the endearingly idiosyncratic vocals of ravechild favourite, Kyle Wood.
Wood is possibly the hardest working and most prolific musician in Glasgow, if not the country/planet/universe, releasing regular lo-fi solo albums under the moniker Lovers Turn To Monsters, most recently Everything We Miss, a split album with Andrew Pearson, he also this week released a full album as Ammo For Elizabeth, an emo band Wood started while at school and recently revived.
Like the name suggests, the lyrics of ‘Jupiter Fist’ are star-gazing, matching Wood’s normally introspective and personal tales with the language of sci-fi epics: describing mountains and planets, calling upon “ancient fear”, slurring “my hobby is planet smashing” over the chorus, and wailing “interrupting orbit” as the song careens through the outro.
B-side ‘Cable Tie’ is also worthy of a mention, although the production isn’t as slick as the first track it has that lo-fi/DIY sound we love and expect from Wood’s other projects, the verse stops just short of math-rock, the lyrics are again abstract and ethereal – “it’s all in the alchemy”, “it’s all in our history” – and it features a seasick guitar melody that sways just out of tune and back in the way Isaac Brock of Modest Mouse does so well, the notes bending out of shape under the pressure of heavy finger tips.
Physical copies of ‘Jupiter Fist’ can be found in local record stores, it’s well worth donning your anorak and heading out into the cold Autumn to find.
Words: Callum McSorley
