Savages - Husbands / Flying To Berlin

Anybody who has been paying event the slightest bit of attention to underground indie music in 2012 cannot have failed to hear the name Savages tossed around amidst whispers of rippled excitement. Most people, however, had not heard a note of music from the London based four piece with their exposure limited to a few rapturously received live shows. The band’s rise is reminiscent, albeit in a very 21st century way, of the rapid ascent of Suede who famously featured on the cover of Melody Maker touted as the best new band in Britain before they had even released their debut single. It is extremely pleasing then to report that Savages’ debut single is a breathlessly exciting burst of visceral guitar music that very much lives up to the hype.

There is a compelling mystique about the all female four-piece that carries over into their sound which is a doom-laden mix of intense post-punk full of vigour and white-hot energy. ‘Husbands’ rattles along thrillingly over the course of its three minutes with the tension ratcheted up to eye watering levels, singer Jehnny Beth resembling Siouxsie Sioux with her anguished hushed yelp sounding menacingly deranged. The similarly Banshees-like bass sounds provide more echoes of the seventies post-punk vanguard but in the context of an increasingly moribund guitar landscape in 2012 it all sounds impossibly exciting.

The more groove-led ’Flying To Berlin’ is more restrained but arguably even better, a loping rhythm complementing a brooding vocal as Beth alluringly intones a lyric about being “Not yet turned on.”

It is rare that a single can genuinely surprise you and stop you dead in its tracks. Savages have certainly accomplished that with an unbelievably striking debut that both adds to the intrigue and provides immediate notice of their immense potential.