Tenebrous Liar — End Of The Road

Seventh album from NME photographer Steve Gullick’s band Tenebrous Liar and what a corker it is. A magical distillation of all that is good about down and dirty Rock and Roll in 39 minutes of grubby fuzzed out dynamite. Most tracks are around the three to four minute mark and they sear into your head and stay there etching into your brain. Echoes of the finest shabby bands from the last 50 years are all here, from the Groundhogs, via Joy Division and Sonic Youth to P J Harvey, they’re all here. Albums of this type come along rarely but when they do they deserve a warm welcome.

The album begins with the blast of instrumental appetiser ‘Bomberhead’ which shows the bands Midlands roots with the ghost of Tony Iommi all over it. I kept waiting for Ozzy to come in. This opening salvo is then followed by ‘Expired’ which features scummy glam rock guitars and strung out Seventies Punk vocals. Television or the Heartbreakers come to mind and I bet Julian Cope wishes he had written this!

Third track ‘End of the Road’ is just the kind of track which Quentin Tarantino would pick for one of his films, featuring as it does tired vocals over a great cinematic Chris Izaaks spaghetti guitar over which appear crooning backing vocals as the track develops into a real tragic paean to the apocalypse.

Then we turn to punky pop like Joy Division on a good day. ‘Run Run Run’ is a great song with chiming guitars and a real hook of a chorus. Brilliant!

Onwards with ‘Erase the Days’, Gullick again sounding like Ian Curtis over exploding power chords and feedback fuzz guitars. This is a real scuzzy song which would really suit PJ Harvey, raw, brittle and heavy.

The album continues in fine style over the four remaining tracks, with ‘Burn on a Sunday’ coming on like early Sonic Youth on a piece of psyched out jam rock that spirals into space. ‘Get back’ again delivers more PJ style posturing and big fuzz guitar until we reach the penultimate track, ‘Sleep’. This is the longest track at over nine minutes and it really is a killer. It starts quietly for the first three minutes before launching into a magnificent driving, insistent riff like early Hawkwind on a space groove. It all ends with a sonic maelstrom which crashes in waves of feedback. We end with ‘Pieces for You’ , a weary goodbye slow burn.

All in all a fabulous slice of fuzzed out guitar driven madness which more than holds its own with classics of the genre and kicks a lot of them literally into the dust. Not to be missed!