Ezra Bang & Hot Machine : 'White Power' / 'Pussy Got 9 Lives'
Released: Out Now
Label: Gold Swine Records
Ezra Bang & Hot Machine, now there’s a mouthful for you, courtesy of the man Ezra Bang and the four-strong ‘hot machine’ musicians that support his rap-come-punk vocal style and its raucous, unrelenting, abrasive style. With origins apparently lying in New York but musical influences listed from literally every corner of the musical globe, two people listed as drummers and comparisons with Public Enemy and Outkast, they’re a band who sound unpredictable, if that’s at all possible.
Their new single is one I looked forward to listening to, having heard that they’re quite something, and the two minutes fifty five seconds of ‘White Power’ fall right into the categories I’d presumed: exciting, confusing, ear-battering punk-rap-something that takes a while to acclimatise to. It’s a good job in many ways that the drums remain pretty consistent throughout, the song needs something to hold it together as Ezra’s vocal is almost haphazard, caring not for the rules that tie so many vocal melodies down. His voice has attitude, the arrogance that should be within any man whose band name contains his name and the lyrics are equally straight-forward – this band pull no punches, it seems. As seems standard in anything new these days, electronic sounds courtesy of well-oiled synth skills are essential to the make-up of the song, glossing over the ‘dirty’ feel ever so slightly to showcase a little melodic ability. Live, this must make for great viewing, but on record it holds up well too, the production being raw enough to allow the bands edginess space to manoeuvre whilst still pinning down that essential melodic spine. It’s easy to see why this is a band grabbing peoples’ attention, they’ve a lot of the characteristics needed to do just that – lyrics that might get banned from the radio but might also get people talking, the swagger of a band five albums into their career and a level of originality few others could claim to match. This really is genre-busting, the sort of music so hard to write about because something always gets lost along the way, so the best advice I can give to you is to give it a try. It’s likely a lot of people will hate this, but I’m positive more will love it.
As this single is one of those that used to annoy me when I cared about the charts as a ten-year-old, that being a ‘double-A side’, it’s only fair that I give ‘Pussy Got 9 Lives’ due respect and column inches too. This song is deceptive in its introduction, a slower-tempo comedown from the premiere effort – the first one is always the best - but as soon as you’ve managed to settle into this song it takes off into that chorus of ‘Pussy Got 9 Lives’, a psychedelic synthesiser surprising me purely on the basis that it doesn’t sound out of place and a tempo shift that’s so noticeable they might as well have shouted out ‘faster’. This song feels more experimental, more like a demo that slipped onto a b-sides album; unfinished almost, confused as to its belonging, but with plenty to offer nonetheless. I do prefer the first track but this one opens up a new angle from which to view Ezra Bang and that’s important for any fledgling band to do, maximising the audience potential from the start.
The vocal delivery of Ezra Bang will put off as many people as the sheer individualism will attract, but as a package they make for something quite different to most of those that dominate the musical front pages at the moment. It might be too much to take, but it comes across totally natural, the product of five genuine individuals with a collective interest for making messy but melodic music without care for the generic rules that can hold back those who worry a little too much about what others might think.
Ezra Bang & Hot Machine don’t give a shit, and it’s that more than anything else that should see them hold their ground for a good while yet.
7/10
Words: Benjamin Coley
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