picture by Kyle
Red Red Krovvy started as a high school band around 2007 in
Cairns, Australia.
Three friends fond of punk rock decided to get together and play the
music they love (it always starts like that right?). I don't know if they
were the only three into punk and/or they could not find a bass player but
in the end RRK is guitar + drum + vocals.
After graduation the three aussies quickly moved out of North Queensland
and the band is now scattered between Sydney and Melbourne if I'm not
mistaken.
The important thing to understand is that RKK is probably the first band
of these three now deeply-involved-in-the-scene guys and became more a
side project for old friends than a "main" band.
Ben (guitar) has played in
Bed Wetting Boys
and
The Baby; Adam (drums) has played in
Smooch,
Drunk Mums,
Reaper,
Rubber Room,
Grotto
and is running
Pissfart Records
and Pissfart Studio; Ash (vocals) has played (drums) in
Little Desert,
Synthetics,
Pop Singles
and
Masses
but most importantly is the singer of the amazing
Ubik.
Oh and the name of the band comes from Clockwork Orange in case
you were wondering.
Ok presentations being made, let's have a look at their
discography!
From the "early" years and the 2012 demo few traces remain online. There is a video on Youtube entitled "The Early Years" and a few tracks available on compilation CSs you can find on bandcamp here and there (Tandang Records having the strange policy of not making their music available...).
Anyway as described on bandcamp in 2016, these tracks "were recorded eight and a half years ago to a microphone on the floor",
that gives a good idea of the quality of the recording...
Let's jump to the first proper releases!
Released in 2013 on R.I.P Society Records, this first 7", which will be later named I, was a little blast in the aussie punk rock scene at the time. Ok the recording is not great and they are not so clean in their play but the energy and anger are absolutely ripping.
In tracks like EZ Video or Desire you can hear behind the
imperfections of a first release the greatness of a band in
progress.
The absence of bass is actually not so much of a problem as Ben is
furiously filling up the space with raging riffs. Great work between the
drums and the guitar!
Ash is still a bit hesitant in her screaming vocals but the energy is
there.
A very promising start.
The recording is still unfortunately not very good and doesn't do justice to the energy delivered by the band (especially for the vocals) but on the other hand gives a a cool "low-fi" punk atmosphere.
To be honest I am less excited by this 7" than I am by the first
one, both sound pretty similar but, except for Desire II and
New Year maybe, it lacks a bit of the contained anger and energy
which were making the first 7" a success.
I don't know, it just doesn't seduce me as much.
As Ben explained in
his interview for Vice, the two 7" were rushed and the band didn't really take much time to
practice before recording and I can really feel it. It sounds like they're
not completely ready and lack the maturity of a mastered song
writing.
RRK's first full length is released on Helta Skelta in 2017 and is probably their first release with a proper recording. It finally sounds good!
It looks like the band took more time to practice and think about the
songwriting and production this time but, and unfortunately, I feel like
the anger and energy of the first releases got a bit lost on the
way...
Same formula as on the 7" yes: pure mid-tempo straight-forward punk rock
but I don't hear the bursts of anger, the explosions of energy there were
in songs like EZ Video or Desire... ok I agree RRK has
always been about contained anger and "heavy" simplicity but this time it
just doesn't work really well. Don't get me wrong though, it's not a bad
album but it's not a very good one either, no song really sticks out and
it just feels like a silly little fight about to start but never
happens... which is frustrating!
But there is some greatness in super tensed songs which never explode,
here it never really reaches that point actually, it's just a bit too
soft, a bit not-catchy-enough to really go from "average" to "good".
Maybe the absence of bass (which forces the guitar to almost never stop
and to support the melody all along) reach its limit on a LP and in the
end it's just too many songs for the ear to not be bored by this
formula...
Anyway compared to what Ubik managed to deliver in their EP, we
are a few steps behind here...
In 2017 RRK left 'stralia for a big south-east Asia / Japan tour
with the Japanese fast punk band
Milk.
And they seized the opportunity to seal their friendships
with a split tape
released on the Japanese label
Black Hole.
With four songs each this tape is a good occasion to discover the two
bands for those still not familiar with them.
And it's actually a good release to start with if you are discovering
RKK! Yes I feel more energy than on the LP, especially on tracks like
Dead Cat and Micromanager which are, in my opinion, among
the best tunes written by the band.
The Australian side is concluded by Real Estate, a "long" track
for RRK which gives a glimpse of a no-so-explored aspect of their punk
rock, and it's not an uninteresting one in my opinion.
Three years after their last release the three friends are back
with a new LP on Helta Skelta, once again. But don't think they
have been lazy during all this time, if you've read the beginning of this
post you know that they all have been extremely busy indeed...
Anyway here is finally some cover artwork with a bit of color,
good!
From the first seconds of Before You Die (which intro makes
me think so much of
Red Lion from The Young Ones, yes I know it's just a totally different thing)
Managing
tells us a lot about what our eardrums will live during the next 10
songs... Some very angry punk rock, some very good punk rock which is a
big step above everything the band has released so far!
Ash has never sounded so confident, so angry and so in total control
of the power of her singing; once again, Ben holds it all together
with his guitar work, perfectly managing the perilous balancing act of
maintaining a constant sound power while providing sufficient rhythmic
and musical variation so as not to tire our poor brain.
Yes because the big improvement of this record is the effort the band
put in the songs construction, diversity is the key here.
From classic RRK mid-tempo punk tracks like the great
Despise The Rich, Another Great Tragedy or My Father's Dream to almost-hardcore
fast
songs like Company Job or I Just Got A Dog, RRK keeps
us attentive and alert, even taking the risk of surprising us with a touch
of synth (which sounds a bit like saxophone) on Micromanager,
Real Estate, Despise The Rich and
My Father's Dream.
There is also this intro on
I Just Got A Dog which gives us just enough time to take a
last breath before the barking fury explosion of the song or the
heavy, sad and violent "ballad" called Real Estate which unsung parts
are punctuated by ghostly voices and demented but anguished
laughter.
Did I forget to use the adjective angry ? I hope I didn't because
that's what Ash, Ben and Adam are on these ten tracks... angry against
modern life, modern world, inequalities, capitalism and so on...
Despise The Rich, Company Job, Before You Die, Real Estate,
Micromanager
etc... and so on... are real calls to reduce the modern world to
ashes, to free ourselves from the straitjacket of the modern, urban
wage earner in which triumphant Anglo-Saxon capitalism has imprisoned
us all. Yes there is a lot to be said...
Managing is, whitout any doubt, the best RKK record so far. The three friends have improved their game a lot in the last few years in their other bands and musical projects and the result is really good. This album is not perfect though, I would have put the guitar way more upfront to give more power to the songs and the drums also sound a bit weak in my opinion.
RKK has grown on me with the evolution of their discography but compared to the Cold Meat LP for example there is still this little something missing to take me from "a very successful album" to "a total killer"...
You can listen to Red Red Krovvy on Rien à Faire #17.
N,J'Oi!
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