Label: Nice Swan Records
Released: 19th May 2023
Fans of unbridled musical bedlam can rejoice once more, as one of the most gonzo and debauched live acts around have returned with a second EP of unhinged chaos. Brighton’s Opus Kink, a band that can make a show in the iciest of environments a sweat-fest, have been slowly, and noisily, making a steady name for themselves on the circuit, and this goes some way to transferring it onto record.
‘My Eyes, Brother!’ might start off slowly and steadily, but it doesn’t take long before opening track ‘Chains’ unravels in classic Opus style. At points on the EP, it might seem like it will completely derail, yet somehow manages to slither back into form. It’s the kind of music that, in truth, doesn’t always quite live up to its removal from the heaving masses of its live form – but tracks like the magnificently beer-stained ‘Dust’, a song that comes straight from the Carl and Pete songbook of a bar brawl-meets-singalong come mighty close.
Elsewhere on the six full-length tracks (with a couple of additional brief breathers), there’s somehow room for James Bond-ian trumpets parping all over the shop on ‘Piping Angels’, ominous and sinister slouching basslines on ‘Malarkey’ and a generally deranged multi-layered, skittish air throughout. A band that it’s impossible not to have a strong opinion on either way by now, ‘My Eyes, Brother!’ may do nothing to convince the unimpressed just yet, but the already converted are in for a hell of a good time here.
