Album Review: Naked Giants – Sluff

Seattle’s Naked Giants have unleashed their debut album, Sluff, a word that can mean everything and nothing, and this seems to be appropriate as the band themselves seem to embrace everything and nothing as Naked Giants have released an album that is a rollercoaster ride through alternative culture. Whilst Naked Giants very much have their own sound, its one that is oddly familiar as it’s built from fragments of other genres, this doesn’t just to apply to Sluff as an album as their scattergun approach is present in every track on their debut full length.

From the skittering eccentric mix of garage and punk that makes up the opening track Dead/Alive it’s clear that Naked Giants have brought us something unique with Sluff, the album heads down an idiosyncratic path that embraces post punk, indie, psychedelia, blues and rock ‘n roll along the way, every track carries the feel of the experimental side of the garage and psyche scenes but this is blended with a host of other infuences to create a sprawling, chaotic and unpredictable album. The album’s epic track, TV, is a good example of their style, starting with clean sixties pop that veers into a heavier garage vibe, it abruptly shifts into a frantic punk style mid track before heading off into experimental psychedelia before finally returning to it’s garage origins.

Naked Giants independent eccentricity is an ever present across the album, whether it’s dealing out frantic trashy punk, angular post punk riffs, garage punk or psychedelic eccentricity the whole of Sluff is delivered with a kind of enthusiastic headonism. Sluff comes across of an amalgamation of every idea for a song that Naked Giants have ever had, as a result Sluff can be a hit and miss affair in the melting pot of styles that Naked Giants have embraced, but if you’re tastes lie towards the experimental and eccentric side of the alternative scene then Naked Giants are a band that you need to become acquainted with.

Sluff can be ordered on vinyl, CD, cassette and digital formats here

Naked Giants website can be found here