The Minehead mavericks return with a second album that defies easy explanation. Out on the 14th of August on Breakfast Records.
Where do you start with Getdown Services? If you haven’t seen them live then you are at an instant disadvantage. Getdown Services have been one of the most talked about live acts in the UK in the last year. A bizarre mix of high energy tracks, comedy music and the odd moment of deep introspection. Like the greatest in-house Butlin’s act you have ever seen.
This second album is a distillation of everything that makes Getdown Services Getdown Services. It shouldn’t work, it has no right too. It is carried across the finish line by the infectious energy, enthusiasm and borderline madness of the two creators, Josh Law and Ben Sadler. It focuses quite heavily on childhood interests and traumas. It uses the thought no one gets past childhood embarrassment, or that the same sense of shame and embarrassment manifests in other ways as we get older.
Musically it is a hot mess, all over the place. We get full on Status Quo-esque rockouts ( ‘Probiotic,’ ‘Lentils’), 80s retro styled pop (‘check definition,’ ‘No One Likes Me’), simplistic banjo tales of someone being sick on the bus (‘Poor Bannister’), The Streets/Anthony Szmierek spoken word dance (‘Cha Cha Slide,’ ‘Stop Living,’), electo-rock (‘The Definitive Map), a spoken word ramble about purchasing a card and chocolate, from a random woman, just like on Crisps (‘A Crazy Story’), a track doing a great impression of Blur circa ‘Coffee and TV’ (What’s On Your Mind?’) and whatever the hell ‘The Radiator’ is (DFA inspired dance?).
There are those of you who will listen to this album and be totally nonplussed. Who will put the amount of hype Getdown Services are getting down to record labels purchasing bot-farm influencers. To them I would say, go and watch them live and then see if you find it works. There are a few others who will probably hail it the greatest album ever, that feels like too much of a stretch the other way – but this a band that generates that level of fanatical devotion.
The end product does not feel as funny as debut album ‘Crisps.’ There is more of an attempt to tell stories, evoke memories. ‘Cha Cha Slide’ is referencing the DJ Casper track of the same name that was non-stop at caravan holiday camp kids entertainment for many a year, still in circulation in some places.
It isn’t great poetry in way Big Special do it, but there are moments, and a truthful honesty to a lot of it. There are glimpses of brilliance in the attempt to translate life through the eyes of their six-year-old selves. There is also some genuine musical skill. They produce all their own tracks and they understand the different rules of the genres they dabble in, using or ignoring them as they see fit. ‘No One Likes Me’ musically sounds like a lost eighties film classic.
The end result is a band so uniquely themselves you can’t really imagine anyone else having made it. It isn’t high art, but then neither is it gutter pop. Ultimately, it is a whole lot of fun. It might evoke some giggling, it might evoke some nostalgia. There are more tracks here that add well to the swirling chaos of their live experience and that is all you can ask of a band like this. Go see them.
Essential Tracks: ‘Probiotic,’ ‘Cha Cha Slide,’ ‘The Radiator,’ ‘The Definitive Map,’ ‘What’s On Your Mind,’ ‘Check The Definition’ and ‘Lentils.’
Leave a Reply