Bones Shake – Cracked Lips EP

Bones Shake are a scuzzy fuzzy blues trio from Manchester, England, however, this is not your traditional blues. Bones Shake, and their Abattoir Blues Records labelmates, have dragged this genre kicking and screaming into the modern age, they play a distorted pounding reverb drenched variety that is an assault on the senses. Cracked Lips is their latest release and it follows hot on the heels of their debut album, Junk, that was launched earlier this year

The title track, Cracked Lips, opens the EP, and it opens proceedings in fine style, it sounds like a stripped down version of The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster that’s crashed headlong into a bootleg by The Cramps, it has a raw primitive beat and an astonishingly dirty guitar riff that ends with a garage born howl and a squall of feedback. The Cracked Lips EP is worth your pennies for this track alone, but given what follows you should certainly investigate this trio further. I Got Worry brings the pace down slightly, but only slightly, it boasts a demonic fuzzed out blues riff that combines with some deliciously sleazy slide guitar, all the while a hypnotic beat pounds away with their trademark dark incantations completing a dark swirling gumbo. The dark tone of the EP continues on Long After I’m Gone, this brings the tempo down another notch, it features a more laid back guitar style, closer to their blues origins, but this is overlaid with an anguished menacing vocal howl that promises revenge after death, after numerous listens to the Cracked Lips EP I think this dark song is probably my favourite moment on this EP. King Dick brings things to a close with some triumphant filthy reverb drenched blues, it carries the ghost of Louisiana swamps and a dark dark voodoo tone that is the perfect finale to this EP

This is an accomplished EP from this prolific Manchester trio, the tracks contained are a perfectly sequenced snapshot of what Bones Shake have to offer, they carry the spirit of the blues but take it and shake it up with punk rock and garage, the spawn of this union is an EP of bastard blues that defies and exceeds your expectations.

 You can investigate Bones Shake further via Soundcloud here

The Cracked Lips EP, and the rest of their extensive back catalogue, can be ordered from Abattoir Blues Records here