Warmduscher at The Ritz
Johnny James, Managing Editor
Purveyors of sleezy punk funk that proudly resides in la-la-land, Warmduscher play at The Ritz this November.
The offspring of a match made in hell between Fat White Family and Paranoid London, Warmduscher have for 10 years and soon-to-be five albums been one of the most exciting bands on the South London scene. Trading in chaos, their freewheeling live shows matching the deliciously debauched music they put to tape. But they’ve also got the creative chops to back it up. At the heart of the circus is a real love for music, and a fixation with seeing what ungodly creations they can conjure by twisting together influences of all stripes, from jazz to electronica via hip hop.
If you’re new to Warmduscher, check out the grotty groove machine that is 2018’s Whale City, which sees the band – together with producer Dan Carey – grab a plethora of genres by the collar and do everything in their wicked power to leave them a broken, quivering wreck. Within an hour they rip seven shades out of funk, garage punk, Lynch noir, surf pop, blues rock, glam and disco. Musically it’s a hell of a trip, but it’s also lyrically very entertaining, with singer Clams Baker Jr’s spinning unhinged tales of wanton desire and limitless treachery in society’s grimy underbelly.
More of this comes with 2019’s follow-up, Tainted Lunch, before 2022’s At The Hotspot takes things in a slightly different direction: Warmduscher with extra warmth, courtesy of producers Joe Goddard and Al Doyle of Hot Chip. With lyrics that survey the absurdities of modern life in a slightly more relatable way, and a more polished ’80s funk sound, it’s probably the most immediately enjoyable Warmduscher album. So far…
The band’s fifth record, Too Cold To Hold, drops on 15 November, a week after their gig at The Ritz. The album features several guests including Irvine Welsh, Lianne La Havas, Confidence Man’s Janet Planet, Jeshi and CouCou Chloe, and offers up what sounds like their wildest musical melting pot yet. This time they’ve been looking to South Africa, specifically the repetitive and polyrhythmic grooves of gqom (a South African subgenre of house music), which they twist together with hip hop, jazz, punk funk and disco pogo.
The first single, ‘Fashion Week’ (above), is a joyous account of fashion’s die-hard fans rather than the more visible arrivistes or dilettantes — or, in the words of singer Clams, “Those that will do anything to become that thing. That creation. And live it. It’s real artistry when you don’t have the means and you’re doing it. You’re hustling to get on the guest list, you get in, you’re done up by means that you can’t really afford, whatever you do… It’s a celebration of people who will do whatever to look good and feel good and step above wherever they are in their own minds.”
Taking a more sinister direction, the latest drop, ‘Staying Alive’, ain’t no Bee Gees. Getting right to the sordid heart of what the band does best, the tune’s billed as a “working class anthem designed by the ones waiting at schools and selling careers in war to the youth of today while their parents work for a system that keeps them going with positive propaganda and synthetic solutions when all else fails.” Sounding every bit as squalid as the morals of those it takes aims at, the song’s built on a bleary-eyed, plodding groove until the gear switches suddenly into a breakneck outro, as on-the-edge and thrilling as anything they’ve released.
When most bands get round to releasing album number five their sound, weighed down by expectation or having resorted to formula, has generally ossified. It might still sound good and fans will probably lap it up, but the days of adventure and exploration are quite often long gone. Warmduscher are not most bands.
