Alternative Rockers Phoxjaw do what they do on their second album, after Royal Swan (2020). ‘notverynicecream’ is an often powerful but still puzzling mix – interesting, intense and infuriating, with straight-ahead, rollicking rock punctuated by Prog moodlings and discordant doodlings, not to mention this Bristol quartet’s trademark oddball audacity. File under “brave experiment”, “Mad Scientists’ Ball”, or simply under “Phoxjaw” – if not quite as “unique” as some admirers would like to suggest, they surely deserve for now a little section to themselves.
A song called ‘knives’, for instance, gets the balancing act more or less spot on – a real rocker, with the crazy interludes suitably off-kilter and unnerving. When they’re like this they are good, really good, just the right side of “in control”. Elsewhere, though, the crazy takes over as other tracks seem to stumble and fumble among the frequent time shifts. Rich in texture but thick in obscurity, Phoxjaw sound like Swindon’s own XTC meet early Pink Floyd, with Metal, some Britpop and a bit Bowie. A special mention upfront for the album artwork, surely one of rock’s most striking images in recent times. Like the band, it’s old school but zeitgeist, thought-provoking and radical.
Opening track ‘evermore’ is mad, if not maddening, not so much setting the scene as dulling the knife. Straightaway, though, it gets better with ‘apples’, lots of guitar, Sludge-y in the late going, and things open up melodically on ‘icecreamwitch’ (and yes, before you ask, track titles are scrunched up like that in lowercase, as in ‘thelastmackerel’, ‘shotgunlipstick’ and ‘lastmancalledjohn’, hence all the ‘single quote marks’ I have been forced to employ. Like a Biffy Clyro typo, this lot are a bit Glyph-y Psycho).
The persistent switching time signatures recall The Mars Volta as the kids keep up with the kooky and there is a tangible sense throughout of dislocation and anxiety, depression and isolation. Stand-outs include the single, ‘sungazer’, righteous riffs, dominant drums, nice keys and synths. ‘thesaddestsongever’ keeps the bar high as probably the hookiest number. ‘tortoise’ is perhaps the cleanest, most straightforward, most accessible track, with ‘dancingtrees’ more off-the-wall. The aforementioned ‘Knives’ is crushing, Metal as anything, before the merry-go-round at the nightmare carnival crashes off its dodgy axis once again. Closing epic ‘serpentsdripfromtheskies’ (7:44) is full of atmosphere, full of theatrics, full of ideas.
Phoxjaw are Danny Garland (vocals/bass), Kieran Gallop (drums), Josh Gallop (guitar/keyboards) and Alexander Share (guitar/vocals).
notverynicecream, by Phoxjaw, is out on Friday (May 26) via Hassle Records