Give me my ears, copious quantities of Guinness and a Danish with the custard fresh within and I’m a happy man. It really does not take much to lift my spirits but could equivalent sustenance be found in the abyss of misery that Edinburgh shoeqaze band Mad Nurse have chosen to inhabit with their EP “The Rip”?
True to genre expectations, these four songs are generously seasoned with melancholy and, to their credit, the band do sometimes sound as if they were the sons of Goodbye Mr Mackenzie on the kind of narcotics that could only ever initiate a downward spiralling fugue. “Seven Streets” undoubtedly leads you down that path with more considerably more conviction that the stretched out beyond having a point “Violent Dreams”.
Atmosphere is the game here, of course, but the lack of any virtuoso performances does render Mad Nurse’s earnest efforts adrift in a sea of similar bands. Likewise the stylistic choice to make the vocals as laconic and unaffecting as possible could well affect their chances of future success. However, if the plan was actually to stroke the gerbil then this band has successfully crossed the barrier into amplified depression but, oh my bloody valentine, where is your soul?
The EP is available from Bandcamp.