Track of the day
Song: Rip it Down
Artist: Dirty Hands
Genre/s: Punk/Indie Rock/ Alternative Rock/ Post-Punk/Neo-Grunge/
My track of the day is ‘Rip It Down’ by Dirty Hands, a solo project from Scott Stevenson, frontman of the band, TigerFace. This tune is the second single from Dirty Hands’ debut album, ‘Blood, Sweat & Arrogance’. This artist hails from Glasgow, Scotland. At the end of the review, there’s a Bandcamp link to ‘Rip It Down’. In the coming weeks I will be writing a full, track by track review of this song’s parent album. With all that said, let’s go!
‘Rip It Down’: Discordant Sonic Youth style guitars chime in the intro, before bass and drums kick in, totally centring the tune into a riff laden blast and creating a thick wall of sound. We’re in classic song structure territory here. As I was explaining in a very recent review, sometimes a band or artist can ‘over-celebrate the riff’. With Dirty Hands however, this is avoided. In music science, the ideal intro length is under 30 seconds unless it has lots of changes (‘You can’t always get what you want’: The Rolling Stones; ‘Holiday in Cambodia’ Dead Kennedys) but shouldn’t exceed a minute. What Dirty Hands does is implement change twice in lest than 30 seconds. It’s a Punk songwriting trope, to keep the listener on their toes and this artist accomplishes that. The vocals come in, blending classic UK Indie style voice delivery (Ian Curtis, Joy Division; Mark E Smith, The Fall) with US Alternative ‘Slacker’ vocals. (J. Mascis, Dinosaur Jr.; Stephen Malkmus, Pavement). They’re understated to start with, weaving in and out of the guitar. This means one second, vocals can dominate, whilst guitar riffs act as back up approximating backing singers in terms of melody, the next we intercut with the main guitar-led instrumentation. Then before the minute is up, there’s a change in vocal direction, it’s brief, maybe approximating a harmony- think classic Indie band Teenage Fanclub, but without the multi voices. Coming back to the important minute- this is what I like to call ‘Statement of Intent’. If a artist can deliver an intro, verse and chorus/part 2/change in less than a minute it means that the listener’s attention should hopefully be grabbed. It’s a real skill as a musician- and as one myself, we secretly fall in love with our songs, but making sure a listener won’t tire of our ideas quickly is a skill; one that Dirty Hands possesses. With ‘Statement of Intent’ it allows the listener to relax, so any further changes, middle 8, Guitar Solo, Break Down, vocal breakdown (for instance, the vocal break during ‘The Ocean’ by Led Zeppelin) are welcome.
Then it’s back to a brief musical interlude and next, Dirty Hands ‘lets go’ a bit with the vocals, giving a bit of clout in the same way an 80s/New Wave singer, such as Richard Butler from The Psychedelic Furs or Simon Le Bon of Duran Duran would ‘Let themselves go’. Because all has been established musically, Dirty Hands is able to slightly alter and relax his voice and augment and deviate from what the listener is expecting from the guitar. In this case, little guitar stabs. Think of them in the same way I consider punctuation marks with my articles! Then there’s a perfectly pitched guitar solo. It wins, owing to several factors. First, it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. Second, it replaces the voice which is bouncing off the more discordant main guitar. Third (and related to the second) the guitar solo provides an interesting juxtaposition. It’s very clean and melodic in relation to the main guitar. The sound/technique of the solo reminds me of UK bands who had a hybrid sound of Punk and more traditional Indie in the mid-late 90s. (China Drum, Symposium, Midget) Then, something wonderful happens, there’s a middle 8 in reverse. Usually in music, it’s middle 8 then solo. However, here is solo, middle 8, another solo. It’s a neat trick. The middle 8 itself is a fuzzy dub inspired section, that I think, shares some DNA with The Clash. Then out of the mid section, there’s a poppy mini-section that has a little bit of a nod to The Ramones, which then intwines again with more familiar guitar stabs, drawing this mini-epic to a close.
With ‘Rip It Down’ there’s a lot going on, which is good. So many ideas skilfully weaved together. I think whether you’re into Punk, Grunge, UK Indie, US Alternative Rock or like me, the lot, you’re going to love this tune.
‘Rip It Down’ by Dirty Hands: https://dirtyhandsband.bandcamp.com/track/rip-it-down-2