Posts Tagged ‘Babes in Toyland’

Pythies – Disillusion

Posted: 15 September 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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20th September 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

2024 is the year of Pythies, the musical project of Parisienne grunge fan Lise.L. While the Internet age has enabled countless acts to leap from bedroom conception to releases in a matter of weeks, she’s been rather more measured in her approach, and having decided at the end of 2022 ‘to form a new musical project lead only by women, which included influences of the grunge culture of the 90s (L7, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, Hole) and her taste for witchcraft’, debuting with an EP in May 2023, 2024 has seen the emergence of a couple of singles ahead of this EP release.

I will admit that I’m still coming to terms with this new model. In the 80s, 90s, and even 00s, you would either release a single or an EP. But digital has changed everything. Historically, whether it was a single or an EP, there would be physical formats, and a single or EP would both receive a release on 7” or 12” and a CD. Now, making a track available on Bandcamp ahead of the full EP’s release counts as a ‘single’, as does putting out a video for a song on YouTube.

Disillusion lands firmly on a personal level, then, because it’s hard not to feel disillusioned with the state of the industry, and, often, the state of music, period, and this EP’s five tracks articulate the sentiment with precision. But… acts like Pythies do bring hope, not to mention a real alternative to the mediocre, mass-produced, autotuned slop which dominates not only the charts but mainstream culture as a while.

There’s something wonderfully raw and exciting about this EP, blasting off with ‘Blondinette’, fast-fingered bassline that boasts some nifty runs racing hither and thither beneath a driving, gritty guitar, which does nothing fancy, but crunches hard, propelled by some energetic drumming and a fuckload of attitude.

The punning ‘I Pithie You’ is gentler and more melodic in the verses, but exploits the classic grunge quiet / loud dynamic with a ripping chorus. And did I mention attitude? Yeah, I know, but it needs emphasising: Pythies distils a blend of anger and nonchalance, while sonically they encapsulate the spirit of ’78 as much as ’92, and the title track positively roars.

Closing off with goth-punk tinged single cut ‘Toy’, Disillusion leaves you feeling exhilarated, excited: there’s nothing better than hearing a band channelling all the frustration, all the rage, all the angst into tight bursts of guitar-driven energy, and Pythies do it so, so well.

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Pythies cover EP crédits Orane Auvray

Pythies – Eclipse

Posted: 17 March 2024 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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Christopher Nosnibor

Their bio tells us that ‘Pythies is a witchy grunge band from Paris (France), created by Lise.L.’ it was late in 2022 that Lise began to evolve the concept for a new, all-female musical project, in the vein of (L7, 7 year bitch, Babes in Toyland, Hole), the twistr being that it would incorporate her taste for witchcraft. You’d think this was pretty niche, but proving the theory expounded in Warren Ellis’ novel Crooked Little Vein – a brilliant book by an author who’s since turned out to be just another white male shithead and therefore probably best sidestepped, although he’s at least disappeared from the public eye following his exposure – if it exists it’s on the Internet, and sure enough, withing a few months, Lise had joined forces with guitar player Thérèse La Garce and drummer Anna B. Void, and lo, Pythies was born.

Thank fuck for the internet and social media. They may be a cesspit of angry people shouting the worst insults and a truly horrible place at times, but let it be remembered it can often be a conduit for good.

‘Eclipse’ is proof positive.

It’s a strong, guitar-driven grunge-orientated song with a darkly seductive gothy tinge to it, calling to mind Gitane Demone era Christian Death.

Amidst images of cards and tarot and esoteric mysticism, there are more direct lines which are very much more of the flesh:

Something

Is swelling

My hands

Are sweating

The vocal delivery is simultaneously sultry and dangerous, hinting at desire but also darkness, as Lise delivers the hook of ‘IwantitIwantitIwantitIwantit….’

What is it she wants? Probably nothing you’ve got to offer, fuckface. The video abounds with lollipop sucking and lascivious woman-on-woman rubbing, boozing, and BDSM, which will no doubt get a lot of blokes in a lather, but make no mistake, this is about female power and self-possession – and it’s absolutely killer.

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Pythies image 2

Pythies Artwork

Nasty Little Lonely – Glitter

Posted: 9 February 2018 in Singles and EPs
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Loner Noise – 9th February 2018

Christopher Nosnibor

The second in their series of singles for Loner Noise, ‘Glitter’ finds Bristolian purveyors of post-punk / industrial racket mining a full-on grunge seam. And Christ, do they bring the weight on this outing. A thunderous, churning riff, as dark as hell and twice as dense, provides the backdrop to Charlie Beddoes’ angst-filled reverb-drenched vocal.

‘Glitter’ is pitched as ‘an introspective and poetic take on the mental strains of being a performer, with the moments of exhilaration on stage often coming at the cost of a great deal of stress and in some cases depression, ruminating on whether the highs would be as powerful without the lows’.

Lyrically, it’s introspective, but sonically, it throws it all out there, and slams it down, hard. And then kicks it around a bit. While Nasty Little Lonely have always had attack, ‘Glitter’ is perhaps one of their hardest, heftiest, and most unforgiving cuts to date. While instrumentally they’ve never been soft, the melodic vocal elements common to their previous outings are relegated in favour of all-out abrasion here. And it’s absolutely bloody storming.

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NLL - Glitter