Bad Sam – Trauma
(Property Of The Lost Records)
LP | DL available here
Out now
The third album from Newport’s Bad Sam sees them leaning heavily into the sonic blueprint of Lard. Humour and indignation underpin their energetic hybrid punk attack on the absurd says Nathan Brown.
Bad Sam appeared some time around 2012 with a great debut album Working Class Holocaust in 2013 (re-released by Urinal Vinyl a few years later). I saw them in 2014 with the full complement of 5 on stage (well, singer Beddis was on the floor with the crowd, but there were 5 in the band). The second album Bring Me The Head Of… fine tuned their attack and the catchy as hell song I’m A Terrorist from that long player often pops into my head.
Bad Sam have now shrunk back to a two piece, boosting their numbers with sampled drums, dance beats, synths and sequencers. This approach, combined with Beddis’s vocal style has me thinking of Lard or some other Jello Biafra industrial collaboration. His vocal similarity to Mr Biafra was noted back when the first album by his old band, Cowboy Killers, came out in 1989.
While Bad Sam have been around for over a decade in their own right, we have to talk about Cowboy Killers and also Dub War, the band in which Richard Glover (guitarist, sequencing etc etc) played in the 90s. Glover’s dubby bass playing for Dub War had a particular feel to it and that is represented in some of these tunes by synth bass notes. Not suprisingly Bad Sam sounds at times like a mash up of Cowboy Killers and Dub War put through an Industrial filter, but with something sinister lurking beneath the surface.
Beddis’s vocal, Glover’s guitar and the general demeanour of the lyrics maintains a link to the previous Bad Sam output but this is more like a new band than just a new direction. Lyrically they indulge in shock and sarcasm and point out the absurd.
There is plenty of sick humour to be found, painting horrific vignettes of a future we don t really want to be hurtling into. The single Popcorn and Blood is a perfect example.
They dismantle the mirage of consumerist society by highlighting its dark corners. There is plenty for Bad Sam to point at. With so much shit out there, their biggest problem must be how to decide what to aim at. They’re also onto the media who provide the illusion and cover for capitalism (capitalism being the “Monster” in The Monsters Dance).
In common with other bands fusing live and electronic music, the new Bad Sam has a relentless driving propulsion, tempered with atmospheric dropouts. This makes for an energetic and interesting listen.
Released by Property Of The Lost Records, which just happens to be run by Karl whose Words Of Warning label brought Cowboy Killers and Dub War to the world. That’s a nice touch.
Order from Bad Sam on bandcamp
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All words by Nathan Brown. You can read more from Nathan on his Louder Than War archive over here.
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