Arctic Reviews

I'm sure the various members of Mr. Happy Chainsaw won't thank this hack for choosing to make my opening line one which refers to their home county of Essex. After all, in the century's second decade there's probably some kind of affirmative action legislation I've infringed just doing it. We'll probably get their people calling soon demanding a retraction.

Normally given the prejudicial view most of Britain has of the county any mention would be lazy research, resorting to archetype. But in this case the band's roots are relevant; they underline suburbia's ongoing love affair with punk-pop, one realised usually by young men who fell in love with the Cally strain via Green Day, who of course appropriated it lock, stock and two chords from Stiff Little Fingers. Why people remain so drawn to a musical style which is at best a pastiche of a long, long dead movement and at worst a caricature is probably down to the mystique of The Clash, but American Idiot is fifteen million reasons why it won't be broken any time soon 

To illustrate the point the prosecution gives you the long forgotten north east trio China Drum, later re-tooled and renamed to simply The Drum, but whom in the early nineties were purveyors of exactly the kind of social disaster ramalama that Mr. Happy Chainsaw are also mightily in love with. Mildly sucessful in the post-Dookie fall out, China Drum understood fundamentally that above all this splinter of punk is best served with tongue firmly in cheek, a point their descendents also seem to have got.

A six track EP, We Appear To Be On Fire is about as interested in breaking new ground as the management of Greenwoods, but still ticks a box or two. Opener Looking Back, sounding like it was recorded in a garden shed, has a skyscraper chorus and all-holds-barred chord progression which is certainly old enough to drink in pubs. Generic? of course, and it's a sound shared with much of it's comprades, most notably on Bigger Man and Person, but whilst it all lacks menace, put a foot wrong in this territory and you're staring down the barrel of McFLy, and credit should be due for recognition of that particular booby trap. Little more analysis is required. You know what this record sounds like even without hearing it. Raw and innocent, Mr.Happy Chainsaw are proud to be the sound of yesterday, today.