{"id":4701,"date":"2022-06-20T23:23:10","date_gmt":"2022-06-20T22:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4701"},"modified":"2022-06-20T23:23:11","modified_gmt":"2022-06-20T22:23:11","slug":"the-fishwives-music-for-submersion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/?p=4701","title":{"rendered":"The Fishwives: Music for submersion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Good lyrics count. Yet the pundits are all surprised Kate Bush\u2019s Running up that Hill<\/em> has hit the top of the UK singles chart 38 years later. \nThe kids recognise good pop when they hear it, even if it\u2019s while\nwatching Stranger Things<\/em> on Netflix.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clearly they\u2019re being fed a lot of crap. Listen to some the other tracks in the top five. \nBut there are good lyrics being written. Great ones. To real music.\nTake the Fishwives. No warps, loops, distortions. Shit, it\u2019s like\nFolk without the purists, able to go anyway it chooses. In this case\ntying a rock on its ankle and wading into the ocean, somewhere near\nAgulhas. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nTheir new EP of four songs, titled In Fluorescence, <\/em>gives\nus more of their raunchy and irreverent, twisted and subterranean\nblues. Telling us stories with drum and bass and ensnaring guitar\nlicks. Listen to it once, listen to twice. Before you know it you\u2019re\nin love with a fish wife. You\u2019re octopus food. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u2018Come, I\u2019ll feed you all my babies, come, feed on me\u2019 <\/em>and\n\u2018You come home all alone with a shredded dress and a\nsmile\u2019, <\/em>delivered in\nSarah-leigh Burger\u2019s menacingly seductive voice. This is what they\nstart with: tentacles that want to suck on your breast. With\ngenitalia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThen they give us \u2018I swallowed an iceberg, I choked on my words\u2019<\/em>\nin a song about the moon coming down to see its reflection, in poetry\nall its own, going inwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThis foursome (bassist Anton Brink on all tracks and here joining\nStrato menacing us on the rhythm), then slug us with Mrs Daisy<\/em>,\nLizzie Gainsford giving us the epitome of the murderous crazy bitch\nas she joins on vocals. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u2018One step too far and it\u2019s her brown eyes you find bizarre\u2019<\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\u2018You\u2019re pretty good with women, you\u2019ve heard it in the past,\nbut when her legs are wrapped around you, you know you couldn\u2019t\nlast. And when your friends are getting worried, pointing at your\nbruises, you shrug it off, saying beggars can\u2019t be choosers.\u2019<\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nStrato, tapping out his own death march, calling like the lost\nmariner in the background, hanging onto a snare drum to keep from\ndrowning in the fishy feminine funk. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s vaudeville, macabre burlesque. In your earballs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThey don\u2019t let go of the darkness, the gloomish plot thickens,\nthere\u2019s still the last quarter to finish off the hole. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It starts in slow notes plucked from guitar with shadows of Africa south in the rhythm, from inside the asylum these characters haunt. Even amidst devoured babies it\u2019s the most cynical of the tracks, a glimpse of bitterness and disillusion. These women are not afraid. They\u2019ll go there, and come back. For what they have alongside a musical sense of place, poetry PJ Harvey would groove to, and literary imagination, is wit. And honesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe Fishwives create music worth listening to, that rewards every\ntime. None of the tracks are going to get to No.1. And you can break\nthat double negative pun down any which way you like, but those they\nget to, are going to be got. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIf you aren\u2019t already, be warned, this four-track might get you\nhooked. Landed and gutted. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe Fishwives will launch <\/em>In\nFluorescence at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown\non 1 July, after which you can get it off all streaming platforms,\nprobably Bandcamp first, where you really should give them some money\nfor their art.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Credits:
Anton Brink: fretless bass, album art<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nSarah-leigh\nBurger: voice, guitar, writer of ‘Moon,’ ‘Daisy,’ ‘Same Day’<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nStrato\nCopteros: drums, voice<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nLizzie\nLou Gaisford: voice, guitar, accordion, piano, writer of ‘The\nFishwife Song’<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Good lyrics count. Yet the pundits are all surprised Kate Bush\u2019s Running up that Hill has hit the top of the UK singles chart 38 years later. The kids recognise … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4702,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4701"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4703,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4701\/revisions\/4703"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecritter.co.za\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}