punk.cat: SNUFF

Saturday 21 June 2014

SNUFF

"demmamussabebonk"
Year: 1996
Country: UK
City: Hendon
Label: Fat wreck chords
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 12
Time: 34 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk

SNUFF are a British punk rock band formed in Hendon in 1986. Their name reportedly came about after a long discussion about names ended up with one of them claiming "That's Enough", which was then shortened to SNUFF. The original line-up was Duncan Redmonds on drums and vocals, Simon Wells on guitar and vocals and Andy Crighton on bass, with Dave Redmonds being added to the line-up on trombone before the release of "Flibbiddydibbiddydob". SNUFF have released their material through a variety of independent record labels including their own, "10 Past 12 Records", as well as on "Fat Wreck Chords" a label owned by Fat Mike of NO FX. This one is for my personal taste the best SNUFF album ever. A disk full of punk and hardcore but also influenced for another musical styles such as: pop, mod, ska, oi!, garage, etc. In fact the band is not at all the typical american melodic hardcore band borned in Berkeley mid 90s. They started in 1986 in UK and for example Duncan (the vocalist) was a mod teenager and had an old typical sixtie scooter (below you can see the pic). The band is mostly as a "punk rock band" but its members has never hidden their admiration for the british Mod icons like The Who, Small Faces or The Jam. When they make music often use another instruments like psychedelic keyboards or skatalitic sax and in this album there is also a great Oi! song entitled "Martin" which I think was very well done. We are in front of a rich and varied influenced disk away from the dogmas and labels with a mature sound, drive and air. I am glad to know that SNUFF are still active and recording new stuff in addition to their successful tour for Japan. These guys are very good people.

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"potatoes and melons"
Year: 1997
Label: Fat wreck chords
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 11
Time: 28 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Punk Rock

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"numb nuts"
Year: 2000
Label: Fat wreck chords
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 16
Time: 38 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk

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"disposable income"
Year: 2002
Label:   Golf
Format: CD, LP
Tracks: 15
Time: 40 min.
Genre: rock
Style:        Pop Punk

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"5-4-3-2-1 Ding-a-ling Yahon"
Year: 2011
Label: none
Format: CD
Tracks: 12
Time: 34 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk

Where does one start with SNUFF? Revered by many, they're a band with a great ability to churn out novelty tracks (more so in their earlier days, though), the owners of a wonderful guitar sound and one of the best? boards and horns combination to ever grace a punk record. Is that enough? Hopefully it is. However, just to play devil's advocate I will add that in my opinion the band have never really released a great album (Now let's see the comments section below light up!!) despite having all the necessary skills to do so. Here the band remind me a sort of fast The Jam with pop / punk melodies, music and voices. Don't forget another instruments such as: psychedelic keyboards, sax and something more there. An album which almost nobody know and frankly is more than satisfactory.

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"5 4 3 2 1 - perhaps?"
Year: 2012
Label: Fat wreck chords
Format: CD
Tracks: 12
Time: 30 min.
Genre: rock
Style: Pop Punk

Snuff. Now that's a seminal punk rock name I didn't think I'd stumble across ever again, after the band announced indefinite hiatus in 2005 and released a best-of collection in the same year. Since their inception in 1986 and throughout much of the 90s, they were arguably one of the most prominent and important punk rock names within the UK, having released a slew of punk rock classics throughout the decade. Snuff were always known for their variety; one song would bring you noisy, buzzing garage punk, the next one would be a melodic rocker, and they'd also dabble their toes in hardcore punk and ska in equal measure.

Well, they're back in 2013 with their tenth studio album "5-4-3-2-1 Perhaps?", their first one in nine years, where that versatility continues as if the past decade simply didn't happen. The band still specialize in vibrant, warm punk rock melodies and vocals that stand halfway between coarse and melodic, offering a characteristically garage-style delivery that's warmed many a heart during the decades that the band were active. They throw curveballs at the listener by breaking into hardcore punk on "Mumbo Jumbo", offer standard Snuff-style buzzing melodic punk on "There Goes The Waltzinblack", and bring in the trumpets and sax on the album highlight "Rate Run". Organs are also occasionally present in evidence of Snuff continuing to expand outside of the safe realms of basic punk rock, which has always been their strength and their unique identifier. Where most bands stick to that one melodic sound, Snuff basically play noisy punk and throw in whatever elements they feel are necessary to create some activity in the soundscapes. Sometimes that's a bright guitar solo, at other times it's a circle-pit inducing pedal-to-the-floor song, sometime's it's toying with Lagwagon style skate punk. It makes sure that Snuff stick out from the hordes of punk rockers out there.

In that sense, "5-4-3-2-1 Perhaps?" is classic Snuff exactly as they've always sounded like. But if there's something it's lacking, it's the classics. Where previous Snuff albums always had a few timeless songs like "Arsehole", "Nick Motown" or "Not Listening", this one only has "Rat Run". The rest of the songs are good, but a little bit disappointing compared to their legacy. But I guess that's often the case with reunion albums like this one. (*NOTE: this review is an extract from HERE ).