Bilge Pump – Rupert The Sky LP

Bilge Pump have a disturbing ability to be better than any band they play with. Imagine a boiling-over bastard concoction of all the best bits of The Jesus Lizard, Led Zeppelin, The Fall, Blue Cheer, Funkadelic and King Crimson. A thick broth of art-punk fractured progressive noise, condensed into atonal pop songs free of power chords. Nitro-fuelled avant-jazz rhythms create enough structural form amongst the twisted guitar and off-the-cuff witticisms to provide an uncanny ability to incite dancing! It doesn’t matter how wired or weird Bilge Pump get; behind the progressive noise there are clear, distinctive, memorable songs: a rare and winning combination! Formed in Leeds during the murky depths of the mid 90s, it didn’t take too long for the NME to churn out their now infamous declaration that Bilge Pump are “unlistenable guff”; so far, so good. It took them 7 years to produce their first album, ‘Let Me Breathe’, released by Gringo in 2002. It has taken another 5 years for their second album to arrive, but in that time they have probably played with, dismayed and blown away all your favourite bands (take your pick from Lightning Bolt, Erase Errata, Part Chimp, Trans Am, The Mars Volta, Hella, Foals, Get Hustle, Les Savy Fav, Enon). They will probably make you want to quit playing music, but you’ll get over it. They may not have done an interview in a magazine for you to read. But they probably are the best thing you’ve ever heard, and if you haven’t heard them, they probably are the best thing you’ve never heard, and if you’ve never heard them, you probably should, and here’s your chance!