Ulster power-duo combine punch with songwriting panache.
What would bassless wonders around the world have done without The White Stripes’ demonstration that a two-piece rock band could make as fearsome a racket as any outfit twice as populated? Who knows, but on their debut album, this duo from Lurgan, Northern Ireland, show two can be a crowd as well as any British pairing out there.
They’re not just half-inching hoary old Americanisms either, as the coruscating, filthy fuzz of No Law In Lurgan proves. That punky crash-bang-wallop approach suits them best, and allied to the dum-dum gonzo riff of My Dark Heart, it instantly hits the spot.
They’ve got more in their locker, though – The Whiskey Lingers is a desperate throaty lament and Those Little Lies is an ear-pricking acoustic ballad to offset the noise. And when it’s followed by another crashing rifftastic two-chord belter, Learning To Cope, you’re all the readier to stamp your feet again.
