The Clockworks - The Clockworks

The self-titled EP from Galways The Clockworks will be released on 1st April (no seriously) via Alan McGee’s label It’s Creation Baby.

Here’s our track by track review:

Endgame

Being directionless in a world gone fuck up has never sounded so great. Frontman McGregor’s vocal cadence radiates “4 Real” carvings in the arm it’s so vital; every breath, note, silence sounds like the key moment in the best film you’ve ever seen.

Previously, their guitars have been in two camps. ‘Can I Speak to a Manager’ and ‘Bills and Pills’ were a great homage to 00s icons The Rakes, The Cribs, and beefed up Good Shoes. Then, in ‘Enough is Never Enough’ something changed.  Brutishness pervaded their punk as they traversed far more desolate landscapes.

Image and artwork courtesy of Sonic Pr

Here, they have married up the two to create the next wave of UK punk. It’s fired them into the brace of Shame and Fontaines DC, arguably surpassing them. Especially when you consider McGregor has found a way to sit between Henry Dartnail’s (Young Knives) slightly high-pitched growl and the warming punk of Grian Chatten (Fontaines DC).

Money (I Don’t Wanna Hear It)

It’s felt an age since social commentary and great characterisation were a part of our lives. There has been great polemic of recent times but, ‘Money’ goes further. It unites the town crier with the poet and is destined to reel in fans from all strands of the alternative world!

Feel So Real

Almost a year to the day since this was first released and its prose feels more needed now than then. The disgusting Spring Statement that neglected millions (becoming a habit Sunak!!!) are lit up perfectly. McGregor’s lyrics scour London life, consuming the good, the greed, and the destitute.  It feels like Welsh, King, and Niven have formed a three-piece punk band with one objective, righteous angst!

The Temper

Not many punks can strip down to acoustic guitars and maintain the quality levels. The Clockworks do not struggle here. The passion of ‘England’s In The Wars’ and the playfulness of ‘D’Ya Wanna Be Spacemen’ offer up a moment of calm but incisive lyrical joy.

Images of Pete and Carl filling time between stage collapses or Brett Anderson sitting on the edge of the stage without a mic come racing to the fore as, this acoustic affair sways with Blake-esque poetry.

The Clockworks – Feels So Real

Galway's The Clockworks, now based in London, returned last week with their new single 'Feels So Real' . Released via It's Creation Baby, it was recorded at Unity/Aquarium Studios and was produced Michael Rendall.

The delirious noise and confusion of early Libertines house parties pervades the brooding guitars whilst James McGregor's lyrics and vocals, recall the poetic punk prose of The Rakes' Alan Donohoe.

Their move to London has come alive on this record. The sound of being young, lost, and furious has reawakened dreams of Albion with their razor-sharp social observation. Although stylistically different, their integrity is on par with Doherty, Barat as well as Brett Anderson. Like the aforementioned, their move to London has ignited poignant insights into the culture and crucially, the people of their new home. A rejection of greed is contrasted with the struggles and deprivation many endure is put back in the spotlight and it couldn’t be more necessary.

This feels like a watershed moment for the band. The music, the lyrics, and the intensity have all gone up a few notches and now anything feels possible for this band.

C33s – Big Winner

Manchester’s C33s have joined forces with Producer Gavin Monaghan (MOSES) again for their second single ‘Big Winner’. Released on Bloody Thieves Records and a mainstay on Chris Hawkins BBC6 show, a big break through feels imminent.

The tour with Cabbage has paid dividends. Their natural garage psyche has been given an injection of their peers’ weird and wonderful punk. The immediacy it’s given them as been spliced hooks in the vein of their Irish counterparts Fontaines Dc and The Clockworks. Make no mistake, this is a great era for bands.

Like Cabbage and The Blinders, they have razor sharp lyrics that threaten the status quo:

“Gathered wisdom from the psych ward to the street / Keep them coming  / I will drench them in defeat” 

Couple this with the Toy meets Lemmy solo, a real sense C33s can turn their hand to anything emerges. There is no intention on playing it safe on this psyche fizzer!

 *Image courtesy of Trust A Fox

Friday 2nd August marks our 8th birthday. Come down to the New Cross Inn for a night of great live music. Tickets available here:

The Clockworks: The Boogaloo, London

Something is afoot across the Irish Sea right now. Fontaines DC, Inhaler, Sick Love and The Wha have all delivered quality albums and singles this year. Last night, Galway’s The Clockworks headlined Alan McGee’s night at The Boogaloo and took their spot in the limelight.

Much like IDLES and Fontaines DC, they’re remarkably fully formed for a band so new. The set is full of Mike Skinner quips, The Rakes’ charm, and unbridled intensity.

Former single ‘Bills and Pills’ stuns The Boogaloo. It’s sublime punk rock. The lyricism of Sleaford Mods and the desolate guitar hooks of The Cribs mark The Clockworks out as future festival headliners.

In front man James McGregor, they have someone truly special for fans to idolise. His attack of the microphone from the first word of ‘Future’ is a volatile death or glory moment. The venomous howl of ‘this is not a fucking joke’ strikes a powerful chord with a drooling crowd.

The pop stomp of ‘Rumours in the Stockroom’ showcases they are not all fire and brimstone. The melancholic pop licks of Editors collide with the sense of urgency. This is vital!

The Clockworks, on this showing, are undoubtedly are band with a meteoric rise on the horizon. They are so immediate, and so necessary, it’s impossible to deny them.

Friday 2nd August marks our 8th birthday. Come down to the New Cross Inn for a night of great live music. Tickets available here: