Newcastle’s LOUSE make the kind of rock that sounds dragged through a dirty club floor. Buyer's Remorse, their second LP for Riot Season Records, leans hard on blunt, repeated riffs, three distorted guitars, Dieta Di Patate’s overdriven slide bass and a saxophone that seems to have been cornered rather than recorded. The songs are short, ugly rituals with a groove underneath the damage, somewhere between Brainbombs’ bad intentions, The Fall’s crooked drive and the Birthday Party at their most unsteady. The lyrics, drawn from murderers, legal escape plans, bad sex advice and being turned into lunch, keep the humour black and the atmosphere mean.
The ten new tracks make up the first half, with “Best Laid Plans”, “The Wastepipe Ripper” and “Meatslide” giving the band room to hammer a single idea until it starts to wobble. Then come ten live cuts, including “The Captain”, “Worm” and “The Good Life”, which put the sweat and blunt-force momentum back into the picture. Long-time collaborator James Atkinson handled the recording work with Matt Ibarra on mastering. It’s a paid release with a vinyl LP, and a good fit for anyone who likes their noise rock rough, rhythmic and a little bit repulsive, especially fans of Unsane, sludge and the more deranged end of punk.
