Jangled Nerves by Plecdrum.Inc

Review by Mark Tyers

3-years in the making, Jangled Nerves is the long-anticipated debut album from Plecdrum.Inc - an unsigned, self-financed Sunderland based 5-piece who stand-out thanks to their ambitious coupling of searingly-honest song-writing with a visceral blend of Hip-hop, Rock, Dub-Step and Drum-n-Bass.

The album is worthy of the wait and features a string of varied, often-very-good songs and is due to be released on iTunes on Friday 10 July and launched in-person by the band at a free-entry performance in Revolution Bar, Sunderland from 7pm on the same night.

“Begin as you mean to go on” goes the famous phrase and Plecdrum.Inc have clearly been taking heed. Jangled Nerves begins with a slow-builder of a track, Press Play (intro), which introduces many of their bases painting a picture of Plecdrum.Inc; past, present and future. Lloyd Joyce's heartfelt vocals and Adam Penman's blistering rhyming combine over a groove-based-track to tell the tale of 3-years of hard-work, gritty-self-belief and ambition which has driven the band to this point - “We've been working / now we're here to play” .

A treble-dominated track, Scarred for Life, follows. Penman takes the lead to tell an intensely personal tale of a kid tormented by bullies who has to run home from school every-day to cries of “run forest run” . The kid grows into a hard-working, confident and ambitious young man who has turned his suffering into strength (“all I want to say is thank-you / now I'm getting paid, I can get these scars removed”) - Joyce fills the narrators role in the choruses; “the boys got these dreams / he's going to go far”. Perhaps due to Penman's background as a long-time youth worker, it's more than the classic tale of triumph-over-adversity that it could have been – there's some serious anti-bullying advice in their to - “so anyone who relates to this song, if your bullied at school or on whatever.com, /don't let them get you down / just tell someone”.

The auto-biographical message filled theme continues into the third track; the stripped-back, gospel-influenced, street-anthem which is Crime Don't Pay. A despairing working-class kid turns to small-time gang-life and gets arrested and imprisoned. Unlike many of his peers, he quits the life of petty crime to follows his musical dreams. Underpinned by a stripped-back, Alicia-Keys' esque piano rift, Crime Don't Pay really showcases the percussive brilliance of Penman's flow and the smoky vocals of singer Lauren Douglas and is one of the album's best tracks.

Things take an accoustic/drum-n-bass swerve in Why Me? which finds Penman and Joyce angrily despairing over the brutal realities of unemployed life in austerity-wracked Britain. Penman's delivery is super-swift, undoubtedly drawing upon his Makina/New Monkey roots to whip through lines like“ how many more bills to pay/ I wish they would go away till I find a way / no electric, or gas / all I want is a nice hot bath, no time for that, I got to pay up fast / they're going to kick me out the flat”. The Daily Mail and Sun should probably take note of this first-hand account of unemployed life in this country before they publish their latest story on how luxurious-life-on-the-dole-is, but they won't of course.

The piano is back driving another stand-out track; Innocent Eyes, the devastating and true tale of a young relatives suicide due to sexual-abuse from her step-dad (Penman asks of the mother's choice of man; “you could of cut him loose / have you got a fucking screw loose?). The song has a huge-heart and it's angry prayers for answers and justice will resonate deeply with listeners (“why do you always take the best and leave the scum behind?”). Musically the song achieves a beautiful pop-aesthetic with Penman flowing over the stripped-back keys, Lauren singing the choruses and restrained percussion coming in part from the first prominent appearance of beatboxer Ben Walker. The only questionable notes are hit at the 5 minute mark where instead of ending an already long song, a less-than-convincing electric guitar solo is brought in for a last go-around.

The heart-wrenching stuff is put to one-side for a minute (or four) and Plecdrum.Inc let their hair-down for a bit of party-time. Up-tempo and catchy, Is She Gonna Come transports listeners away from the grinding-realities of everyday life into love below territory. This is the first-track on the album to prominently feature Graeme Short's funky bass and the rhythm section is owned completely by Walker's beatboxing. The explicitly rough sex scene in the last verse of the song (“I know you like it rough / stick two fingers up and choke you like a little slut”) will polarise listeners as will the production (clearly the band weren't the only ones to let-their-hair-down) which is poor with some level, tuning and timing issues leading to some borderline cacophonous moments which let down what is undoubtedly a fan-favourite.

A haunting guitar rift, reminiscent of The XX underpins the next track; By the end of the night. Originally written when the band were just a duo, it's filled with dark thoughts of substance fuelled, depression, paranoia and regret; “I'm tired of saying I'm sorry / I just want to live life” goes Lloyd's chorus. There's light at the end of the tunnel though, with the guitar rift switching to an uplifting, major key and the promise of “I'll be home”.

It's in the middle of the album that the band drop their biggest single to-date; Love Monster, whose music video has already racked up more than 14,000 views on Youtube. A darkly rhythmic tale of a man driven to suicide by a femme-fatale it showcases the very best of Plecdrum.Inc's sound and lyris starting sharp and accoustic and ending with a full-on dub-step and then drum-n-bass climax.

This is followed by their second self-released single, Oh My Days. In a recent interview Lloyd described the song as being based upon all-of-his breakups and the despairing, loneful lyrics really capture that feeling of desolation. It's tighter than most of the tracks on the album at 3 minutes 43 seconds in length but still finds time to meaningfully go into a drum-n-bass explosion over the course of the last chorus.

Track 10 and the Plecdrum-party is back on and oh How it goes! An instant-classic nu-soul-groove floats along on piano and electric guitar as Penman's bars hits mark-after-mark and Joyce's vocals soar along on a Santa-Ana wind as the break-up turns into blissful personal freedom.

Down-tempo track; This is our time, was surely a contender for album opener but instead is placed as the penultimate track, surely as a signal of the bands straight-up “you need me /I don't need you” big-time intent. A lush production full of restrained sound-affects “This is our time / this is our day” casually strolls along towards a brighter future.

Last song-time and Plecdrum.Inc appropriately opt for a relaxed live recording of Doing This. Acoustic throughout, Penman returns to auto-biography territory in a song all about his passion for music; “I'm doing this because I chose to, I'm doing this because I need to”. Lloyd and Lauren harmonise simply on the chorus for what is a nice 3-and-a-bit minute wind-down ditty.

Things then get real slack and different as the guitar stops and the band introduce themselves one-by-one and give shout-outs and thank-you to their friends, family and fans and why not, this album has been completely self-financed by the band members and their pals through their own hard-work in dead end jobs and it is a major victory.

For the last couple of decades, the popular music charts have been increasingly dominated by Hip-hop, R&B and other urban music forms. For too long, the north-east has almost exclusively produced Indy rock bands and a handful of X-factor/BGT contenders. Now the region is finally on the verge of sprouting some serious urban-acts with who have both the songs and the drive to breakthrough on a national (and hopefully international) scale – could Plecdrum.Inc be the trailblazers? On this evidence they very well could be.