Henrik Björnsson has been laying down nihilistic and scuzzy rock’n’roll sounds with Singapore Sling since 2000, and with Kill Kill Kill (Songs About Nothing) there is a sense that he has long given up chasing radio-friendly commercial success. However, while song titles like “Fuck Everything” and “Surrounded by Cunts” may predominate, the tunes are nothing like the toy-throwing tantrums that they imply. Fuzzy and echo-drenched psychedelia powers this set of 10 haunting and claustrophobic tunes that bring to mind prime time Jesus and Mary Chain, and it’s one fine ride.
The subterranean gothic beat of “Shake Shake Shake” may be a victory for the power of negative thinking but it’s no doomfest. It’s firmly aimed at the dance floor, as is the wild garage go-go groove of recent single “Riffermania (Kill Kill Kill)” and the rockabilly shuffle of “Bop Bop Boo”. “Nothing And Nowhere” brings things right down with an acoustic strum that even features some whistling, but it’s still well within the sonic envelope of the rest of the album. Final track, “Nuthing’s Theme”, however, is not so much a change of tempo as a complete stylistic left-turn. A ramshackle orchestral instrumental with soulful but sparse horns and discordant violins, it suggests Igor Stravinsky, Tom Waits and Ennio Morricone hanging out in an opium den, with some glorious results that may offer a glimpse of a tantalising future direction.
While Singapore Sling’s Mary Chain leanings are hard to miss, the end product is no soulless imitation. Bass lines soaked in reverb and feedback-powered guitars do nothing less than order listeners to their feet to shake some action. It is to be hoped that the Mary Chain can also produce some primal grooves of this quality when they return to the fray later this Spring.