Brawl: “Barney” (My Arse Your Face Records)

Brawl are a four piece hardcore outfit who hail from New Ross, Co. Wexford. To judge by the bleak intensity of their relentlessly buzzing tunes one could well believe that there’s very little to cheer about in that corner of the country apart, perhaps, from the sunny South-East climate, and even that seems to pale beneath the storm of the guitar driven anger of these rusticated ideologues of the alternative and anarchistic persuasion.

One might well ask how it is that the relatively rural rhythms of the Barrowside could play host to the ostensibly industrial screamings of the post-Punk apocalyptic and, predominantly, Steve Albini/Big Black influenced musical carnage that runs amok on Barney but Brawl manage to side-step the dichotomy inherent in such a synthesis by, first of all, singing endearingly in their own accents, which gives them an appeal similar to that which Cathal Coughlan’s brogue held for fans of Microdisney.

Secondly, lead vocalist Murt, the one mainly responsible for the localised lilt, at times slips out of the usually requisite aggressive growl and finds himself melodically counterpointing the rest of the bands’ sonic disharmony. This is especially the case on the most personal of the seven tracks, ‘Washing and Cleaning’, which manages to draw analogy between social irresponsibility and the way in which people in private relationships turn a blind eye to their problems in order to pursue the illusive goal of ‘happiness’.

‘Murder Those Fuckers’, which draws an unsubtle and unequivocal equation between The Catholic Church, The IRA, The GAA and the Macho-Man, is another that best exemplifies the tense fusion of the musical styles of city and country/town and, consequently, sounds all the more authentic, in particular, perhaps, because the institutions it lambasts are often more obviously malevolent and authoritative in the rustic backwaters of our septic isle.

Elsewhere, the pivotal ‘Hatred’, the call and response of ‘Yes Mason’ and the anthemic ‘Get It Right - (Dirty)’ angrily plough through all the expected polemics of politically correct sloganeering with an efficiency and sincerity that is hard to doubt even if these same songs also display the kind of oppositionality and dubious militarism which is often such a self-defeating characteristic of the violence of the society Brawl criticise. However, to the confrontational propaganda of Barney, by and large, I have to nod my head most agreeably.

“Barney” is available from: New Ross Musicians’ Collective: One Two Ten, Ballykelly, New Ross, Co. Wexford. Tel. (051) 88584.

• Patrick Brennan