Skip to main content

Innit – Scud FM



Year Released: 2022

Label: Dash The Henge

Year Bought: 2023

Down in Camberwell is London's greatest record shop. It's not the biggest, doesn't have the most in-depth stock of wax (although it does have loads of great discs), but it has the most important thing of all - a sense of community.

Dash The Henge opened its doors in October 2022 and puts on free gigs throughout the week, stocks vinyl, CDs and cassettes by local acts and labels, has friendly and approachable staff and owners, and gives so much back to the grassroots music scene.

I popped in early 2023 to have a look, and got chatting to Tim, one of the owners. He is part of a team of investors which have links to various South London groups including Fat White Family and Meatraffle.

Before it was a shop, Dash the Henge was a label, and one of its first releases was 'Innit' by Scud FM - a sort of left-wing supergroup made by various members of South London's creative community.

A mixture of drum machines, shuffling beats, Kid A-style brass licks, and strange lyrics, it sounds like a record made by people who absolutely do not give a fuck if you like it.

That's not to say there aren't singalong moments. 'Ego' has the glorious refrain of 'the egos got to go, you know' sung by Lias Saoudi of Fat White Family, while 'Bigger Boat' is almost a conventional alt-rock tune.

'Capacitors' is a bonkers song whereby the lyrics seem to be just an encyclopedia explanation of electrical circuits, while 'Bob Crow' is a love letter to the General Secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers who died 2014. (The tune contains great lyrics about how champagne socialism sounds fun - "bollinger and bolshevism".)

It's a really great record. Even when it doesn't quite work, like when 'Allergen' outstays its welcome, you don't mind as you know this record wasn't made for you, it was made for them, and you're just getting to listen to it.

8/10



Labels

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Pointless Nostalgic – Jamie Cullum

Year Released: 2002 Label: Candid Year Bought: Can't Remember Jamie Cullum burst into the nation's consciousness with a performance on Parkinson in April 2003, a showing that was soon followed by the huge-selling album 'Twentysomething'. It was 2002's 'Pointless Nostalgic' that put Cullum on Parky's radar, and shows the jazz singer and pianist beginning to hone the act that would make him such a breakthrough. There's a host of standards here – 'In The Wee Small Hours of The Morning'. 'It Ain't Necessarily So', 'I Can't Get Started' – alongside a couple of originals and a cover of Radiohead's 'High And Dry'. I remember that song being a big deal at the time for some reason. I think it was seen as rare merging of jazz and alt-rock. Cullum's version is not bad, and actually keeps it quite light and subdued without slipping into a dirge. Cullum was just 23 when this was recorded, and perhaps it's his yo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ringleader Of The Tormentors – Morrissey

Year Released: 2006 Label: Sanctuary Year Bought: 2006 Released in 2006, 'Ringleader of the Tormentors' in many ways represents the apex of the Morrissey resurgence that began two years earlier with 'You Are The Quarry'.  Whereas that album peaked at number 2 in the album chart (although it did spawn 4 top ten singles), its successor gave Morrissey his first number 1 album since 1994's 'Vauxhall and I'. 'Ringleaders...' raised some eyebrows at the time as Morrissey sang explicitly about something he had previously made a virtue of not discussing. His sex life. "There are exploding kegs between my legs," he sings on 'Dear God Please Help Me' – a tune that swells and grows to a climax with strings written by Ennio Morricone. "Now I'm spreading your legs with mine in between," he later adds.  Perhaps this new found desire of the flesh was due to this album being recorded in Italy, and references to the country season the ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Best Of - James

Released: 1998 Label: Fontana When I bought: Can't remember James are one of the great under-appreciated UK bands. Sure, 'Sit Down' will pay their pension, but there's so many great tunes that have been swallowed up and forgotten. When people talk about the great UK bands of the 80s and 90s, they never get a nod. Early in the band's career saw an involvement with Factory Records, but they rarely get a mention when that label is talked about. I remember very clearly when this singles collection was released. It was one of the records that made up the soundtrack to my summer of 1998. I was 13 years old, and into two things: football and music.  At that age I used to spend most of my non-school time in a park at the end of the road I lived in in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, playing football with a bunch of lads about 3 or 4 years older who lived in the neighbourhood. They always had cool CDs, and one of them was this. Seemingly endless games of headers and vo...
Post a Comment
Read more