Monkey Puzzle
Having written the book on sensitive indie-pop in the eighties and nineties, delivered everything from suave indie-rock to searching singer-songwriters in the noughties and given us some of the most promising electro-pop acts around in the form of Chvrches and Giant Fang, perhaps the next music scene Glasgow will come to dominate will be rap. Led by the fearsome duo Hector Bizerk (think Death Grips covering ‘Ill Manors’) and the sample-heavy collective Stanley Odd hip-hop has finally come to the banks of the Clyde.
Mixing live instrumentation with ‘mic strangler’ Conor Moore’s aggressive flow, young quartet, Monkey Puzzle announce ‘we are that punk rap shit’. Channelling Rage Against the Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers and their fair share of rapcore oddities they make pounding funk-metal that fits comfortably beneath their frontman’s raucous burr. This could easily have seen them turn into Scotland’s answer to effluvial musical lunkheads Limp Bizkit but live there’s an unstoppable energy that renders such comparisons null and void. New material hints at an increasing focus on melody but the young group are knocking out tracks so quickly that their recorded output struggles to keep up.
‘Let’s get Funky’ packs an irresistible party groove whilst ‘Flow With Me’s gives it the full on Rage treatment with popping bass and heavy riffing, topped off with Moore’s self-aggrandising lyrics. Whether headlining Glasgow’s underground proving ground Pivo Pivo after just three shows or winning over death-metal fans whilst supporting hard-rockers Sound Over Silence, the young quartet are proving that it doesn’t matter where you’re from, it’s where you’re at that counts.
Max Sefton
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