Song: Working Men’s Club – Valleys review

by Philip Moss

Over the last decade or so, location has become less overtly prevalent in regards to the inspiration, conception and production of music. And while the Calder Valley, and the small towns that it envelops, are very much an important part of Syd Minsky-Sargeant’s thinking on new single, Valleys, it is not so much the locations themselves that are his focus, but the burdening effects that such insular places can have on the people that inhabit them.

‘Trapped inside a town inside my mind,’ Minsky-Sargeant announces in the sprechgesang that he has made his own, as harsh layers of electronic percussion run through Ross Orton’s production, which takes New Order’s 5 8 6, throws in the secret weapon of Liam Ogburn’s pulsating bass, and updates it. The towering, industrial sized synth melodies represent the explosions in Minsky-Sargeant’s creative mind; an ironic juxtaposition to small town mindsets, and a message not confined in any way by location, instead, a nod to the music that allowed him to escape the entrenched feelings from which Valleys was conceived.

Sitting closer to A.A.A.A. and their previous best single to date, Teeth, than the angular guitar based, White Rooms and People, Valleys denotes a band that has not just found their niche, but has started to own it. The valleys are very much alive on Working Men’s Club’s latest transmission. This is one that needs to be beamed far and wide.

Working Men’s Club self-titled debut album is out through Heavenly Recordings on 2nd October.

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