I was bowled over when I first heard this offering from a five-piece Bristol punk band. I was ready to tell everybody that
we had a worthy successor to that great band Tilt mixed with some of the edginess of
Lake of Dracula. That would have been pretty good but this really is a much broader
approach than Tilt - add in some Teenage Jesus & the Jerks guitar and Gang of Four
angularity, stomach punching Swans bass, Solar Race vocals. But all these elements (like a 'best of noise' for the last 25 years)
are just hints of the area that Big Joan operate in. I hear a lot of punk that just repeats the
past - not in this case. This is a classic combination of a strident female singer over some
of the hardest, rawest musical backing you could hope to hear.
The album really does capture those feelings of dripping in sweat, ear-ringing,
and physical nausea you end up with after a great gig. Imagine what this lot are like to see live!
If you like your music loud, challenging, unsettling, and quite honestly, occasionally scary - then
get to hear Big Joan. This is a concentrated aural assault that the government would ban if they
knew it existed.
