The Sheffield Scenester

Artery were originally formed in 1978 and after three studio albums, several singles/EP’s as well as two sessions on the John Peel show they eventually broke up in 1985, posthumously releasing a live album of their final gig in Amsterdam.

Fast forwarding to the year 2000 and the release of the film ‘Made In Sheffield’, which documented the explosion of post-punk and electronic music in the city, this featured interviews with the band and footage from the Leeds ‘Futurama’ Festival performance of ‘Afterwards’, regarded as one of the films most memorable and exciting moments. In 2006 two retrospectives of the band’s work were released simultaneously, leading to Jarvis Cocker inviting the band to reform for the prestigious ‘Meltdown’ Festival at London’s Royal Festival Hall.

After several nostalgia-based shows, they settled down in 2010 to write and record their first original material in over 20 years, the result of which is their new album ‘Civilisation’!

It’s pretty safe to say that the opening track ‘Standing Still’ sets the tone for the entire album, against the swirling torrent of an electro-punk beat; we are taken on a journey into the nightmare of a bleak and truly disturbing society. With a voice that just bleeds heartfelt desperation, lead singer Mark Gouldthorpe begs us all to stand up and be counted, these thoughts may at first glance sound tired and retro but in today’s society can anyone say “They’ve never had it so good!”

This is immediately followed by one of the albums most ominous tracks, ‘The Prediction’;
“Your sister will be next, slaughtered for her views, butchered for her sins, dispatched on her knees in the broken howling winds!” is one of it’s most disturbing lines conjuring up some truly horrific imagery and all played out over one of the most sadistic riff’s I’ve experienced in years, slightly reminiscent of Bowie’s ‘Scary Monsters’, but with a lot more malice. These little poetic gems keep cropping up throughout the album. There are quite a few moments like this, just when you’d happily accepted this desolate universe, Mark plants another dark seed in your subconscious that savagely gnaws away at you the more you listen to it! Halfway through ‘Who’s Afraid Of David Lynch’ the line;
“You said that you loved it when she spit in your throat!” certainly makes you stop and think for a moment, and then of course you have to hear it again to make sure you caught it properly!

What makes this medicine go down is that it has some seriously good dance tunes pumping away in the background so whilst driving about (generally the only way I get to hear CD’s these days), most of the time I found myself tapping along on the steering wheel. A classic case is the song ‘Unfaithful Girlfriend’, a subject you know is just going to be full of depressing scenarios, but beneath it all is one hell of a tune, there’s a gentle, almost symphonic burst of piano every now and then that flashes back to the heady days of Ultravox’s ‘Vienna’, but its these little moments that distract from the abject misery and keep you listening.

Even on one of the album’s more blatant tales, ‘The Stalker’, we are treated to the bouncing jaunt of a rhythm that the B-52’s would be proud to play! Then of course, this is sidelined as we’re hit full in the face with one of Mark’s classic venomous quips; “He longs for you on your dirty knees with hatred in your mind!”

Not every track has a story or even a purpose, ‘The Night An Angel Was Raped’ has to be one of the most depressing song titles of all time, and lyrically it reads like a verse out of Revelations. What it does do however is create atmosphere, albeit a raining fire and brimstone ending to the world as we know it kind of atmosphere, but even so it’s an interesting addition to the mid section of the album.

The title track itself works on the same level as the Dylan classic ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ by listing in news headline format numerous atrocities and scenarios that we’ve all seen on TV countless times in recent years. Essentially this is what we as a society have become, sensationalistic terrorists looking for the next 15 minutes of fame, for me this was the strongest track on the album as not only did the vocals cut to the bone, but the music hammered the message home with its automaton like pounding rhythm!

From a musical perspective you can never say this album is boring, true a lot of the influences are from the early eighties and it really is one hell of a rollercoaster ride to get through, but The Smith’s achieved this very same effect decades ago and they are generally hailed as one of the most influential bands of all time. Artery had the conviction to stick to their guns and play what they know, they could’ve tried to bring a post Monkeys indie influence to their music but they stayed true to their roots and produced one hell of an album for it. Great dance rhythms, futuristic visions of a world gone mad, stories of repression and thoughts that’ll make you despair, but you won’t be able to put it down as the more you listen, the more you want to hear.

Artery have been described as “Joy Division without the Joy” and in many ways that is probably quite an apt summary, they arrived on the scene at about the same time, but unfortunately for them they were the wrong side of the Pennines, as at the time Manchester was the home of the post-punk revolution. Even so they could easily stand shoulder to shoulder with the best of them and this album more than proves that beyond a shadow of a doubt!
David Bowie once said “This ain’t rock ‘n’ roll, this is genocide!”……….Artery took that idea and just ran with it, if you’ve got the stomach for it, I recommend you do the same!