UK threesome SNACK FAMILY have been around since 2011, but it’s only fairly recently that they have taken the time to record some of their material to a possible buying audience. “Pokie Eye” is their second EP, and consists of four tracks clocking in at a grand total of 15 minutes and a few seconds.
The common denominator among them is a sound and expression of the kind that brings to mind images of grimy, slimy backyards of the kind where even hobos would be fearful of their personal safety. The saxophone is dark, majestic and forceful, when not screeching in pain that is. The bass or guitar has an equally dark and unnerving sound, from the slide guitar details used on opening track Lupine Kiss to the dark menacing riffs employed on down on the factory floor anthem Plastic Factory or the tight, metallic sheen given the four or six stringer (or both) on concluding track Pokie Eye Poke Ya. That powerful, pounding drums is a shared trait for all of these songs probably isn’t a surprise given the context described, nor that lead vocalist has the voice of someone you’d expect to eat gravel for breakfast and swallowing it down with 80% proof moonshine.
The standout track, if not in quality then at least in sound and expression, is the 5 minute long creation No Reason though. Plucked dark but delicate guitar details and frail menacing ethereal saxophone fragments supports the lead vocals on this song, in a manner that gives me instant association to David Lynch cult TV series Twin Peaks. This is a song that might have been used as the soundtrack for that series, if it had featured footage from the side of that town that was too seedy for the TV-series that is.
In terms of general style I’d say that this is a band that play the blues, but in a dirtier and grimier manner than most others I’ve encountered. Blues from Mordor perhaps, and then from the sleazy and grimy side of it that was censored from the book and the hit movie trilogy. Snack Family mentions bands such as The Melvins and Morphine as artists they enjoy, and I suspect fans of those two bands might find the dark, grimy and powerful blues oriented material of Snack Family to merit a check.
My rating: 80/100
