The House That Dirt Built

We Say...

Review by Tim Chester

Make no mistake, The Heavy know how to make an entrance. The second you've passed the ominous B-movie sample that opens their follow up to Great Vengeance And Furious Fire they fire a short, sharp garage sidewinder in your face; "Oh No! Not You Again!" is a sub-two minutes Sonics boom of scuzzy guitars and frenzied drums backed by The Noisettes' Shingai Shoniwa on "uh huhs" and "oh yeahs" that comes across like The Dirtbombs at their grimey finest.

From there you're shuttled into the funky Curtis Mayfield shuffle of "How You Like Me Now" before a battering from "Sixteen"'s horn-heavy blues stomp. It's an opening volley that demonstrates quite clearly The Heavy's modus operandi: to revive the most spirited parts of retro soul/funk/garage/whatever and grab anyone in their vicinity by the scruff of the neck to join in. It's respectful cap-doffing done unusually well and in parts it feels almost like a carbon copy of their heroes; "No Time"'s horn break or "What You Want Me To Do?"'s throaty vocal track could have been exhumed from a dusty vault under the Stax headquarters or produced in a shiny studio by four modern guys in love with the past — at times it's hard to tell.

There's few genres untouched during this trip, and everything from Gnarls Barkley-esque soul ("Short Change Hero") to righteous reggae ("Cause For Alarm") gets a look in (the former meeting more success). The West Country four demonstrate a near-mastery of everything they turn their hands to with vocalist Kelvin Swaby in particular an adept chameleon. Whatever they're doing though, they keep it fun and they keep it heavy.