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Mother Vulpine

Keep Your Wits Sharp (Her Words Are Quick)/For A Friend You've Got A Knife Through Your Tongue

Label: On The Bone Release Date: 14/05/2007

23656
domgourlay by Dom Gourlay May 9th, 2007

It's hard to imagine what to expect from an outfit calling themselves something so elegantly cunning as Mother Vulpine, so when the first few bars of 'Keep Your Wits Sharp (Her Words Are Quick)' explode like a firecracker in a public house, you're advised to stand well clear.

Not because the song is awful, but more to avoid direct contact with something so brutal, frantic and potentially life-threatening.

The singer even sounds like he has to get every word out in double quick time as though someone is pointing a gun to his head: "Your last breath or your life!".

Of course, what this makes for is a terrifying sonic assault that sounds not too dissimilar to fellow Leeds noise evangelists This Et Al, and almost immediately makes one forget that this recording sounds like it was made in the loos at the Brudenell Social Club.

Flip over to Sister Vulpine and 'For A Friend You've Got A Knife Through Your Tongue' is even more frenetic, with tales ranging from pushing people's eyes to the back of their heads to more casual self-destruction.

Noisy, bombastic and, ultimately, very scary indeed. You have been warned: these kids will outfox the best of you, no sweat...

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