Song(s) of the Day # 1,422 DUDS

Wired and compulsive guitar driven Post Punk from Manchester band DUDS. Pylon, Gang of Four and Fire Engines seem to be guiding signposts which is a good place to start from. From the opening notes of their album of this year, Of a Nature or Degree you sense this is unlikely ever to let up and so it proves. Utterly relentless.

There's a formula to this kind of stuff. Atlanta's Omni for example are mining a similar seam and though the bands have shared a bill, it might not have been the best idea as frankly the way they sound is a bit too close for comfort. Nevertheless, DUDS do this stuff supremely well. Twelve concise tracks in all, many of them not passing the two or three minute mark, their songs tick and chime with the precision of a finely tuned machine. This is an album that would probably have made my Album of the Year countdown, but it's come to my notice too late.

Nevertheless, I commend it to you. The fact that so many alternative bands are drawing on this template, thirty five years or so after the original models were released is an indication of how potent this sound remains. DUDS don't always sound very much like a British band, the vibe of this also gives off a strong whiff of the early records of Devo and Pere Ubu too , a sensibility which emerged from the depressed and decaying American cities of Akron and Cleveland in the late seventies, (everything is automated to the max), but of course the musical conversation and exchange that has always taken place between America and the UK has always been and remains a phenomenally generative one. Perhaps Joy Division and A Certain Ratio, bands who also hailed from Manchester back in the same day, are also worthwhile reference points. Though DUDS never allow themselves to be Factory glum.

Of a Nature or Degree does not necessarily surprise those of us who are familiar with this stuff but it does delight. This is no mere nostalgia exercise, what they're doing still makes perfect sense. Although fired up and occasionally irritable, this is nevertheless 'glass half full' music, (the band sound like they're having the most incredible fun doing this), and frankly DUDS nail their given objective highly impressively.