EP Review: DITZ – 5 Songs

Straight out of the box, there’s a confidence about this five track EP from Brighton five-piece DITZ that deflects attention from their sonic awkwardness. That awkwardness is wilful, deliberate; dissonance is a key flavour in this recipe. Staccato bursts of urgent guitar noise envelope moments of sublime pop sensibility and hint that the tension and angularity in the arrangements is designed to mess with you on purpose. DITZ dare you not to like them and from the swagger inherent in this music, you can be sure that there is plenty of musical muscle to back up the bravado.

DITZ are lyrically uncompromising too. Radio-unfriendly and angry with strong views, forcefully expressed. And, like the music, the lyrics are delivered with a kind of deadpan energy and intensity that complements the sometimes furious, sometimes wilfully atonal and disorienting musical backing. Chocolate box musical images these are not. There’s a brutal fuzzed-out, feedback-laden power DITZ are minded to unleash, usually when you least expect it.

Top of the pile of these five songs is the cover of Canadian electronic artist Peaches‘ ‘Fuck The Pain Away‘ with its sarcastically strident feminist message. Intentionally or not, there’s a musical hint of The Stranglers in the growling bass sound and vocal phrasing of this version. This is either a fortuitous coincidence or a stroke of genius in welding two opposing and strident stances into one gloriously ironic track.

John Peel would have loved DITZ, that’s for sure. They’re uncompromising and sublimely self-confident. In a burgeoning post-punk scene, they have a strong dash of the special sauce that will lift them above their peers. This EP is the band’s first physical release and comprises previous and new single releases. It’s certainly an appetiser for greater things to come. I’m in.

5 Songs by DITZ is out now on Alcopop! Records and Bandcamp