South Central: ‘The Owl Of Minerva’

Brighton's South Central have been knocking around the scene for a while now, building underground buzz with a brand of dance-rock that seems to get people very excited these days.

The basic recipe: take late-90's Death In Vegas and Lo Fi Allstars (minus the songs), add phat Ed Banger-style production and ship it off to the kids - after all, they'll dance to anything when they're off their mash! This compilation draws together the band's finest works of the last two years and sets the scene for their debut proper next year. By then I'd expect these boys will be doing just fine.

While I'd quite probably love this were I gurning my lightly-haired tits off in some shady club the other side of midnight, hipflask clasped tightly, eyes closed in personal reverie, the reality is I'm not. I'm sat at home with a cup of tea and a couple of ginger snaps trying to listen to this album and form some sort of valid opinion about its pumping, electro-rave-rock. I have concluded that everyone needs to own a few CDs of 'music that sounds great when you're wrecked'. Whether soundtracking a boozy night in or your next house party, it's easy to imagine all involved having a rather messy time. It's dense enough to sound absolutely massive when the volume is cranked up and repetitive enough to keep those legs moving and heads bobbing. Whether I'd choose it for any other situation is highly questionable, however. It's sufficiently lacking in musical depth and the tracks have a nasty habit of blurring into each other. Repeat listening quickly gets boring and my attention is easily directed elsewhere.

And then there's the niggling doubts. I'm just not sure I trust their judgement. You're either brave or a fool to try and cover Josh Wink's classic 'Higher State Of Consciousness', and for me South Central come off the latter with a pointless rendition that nobody really needs to hear. It'll be interesting to see how/if their sound evolves over the course of a full-length proper, but for now the verdict seems clearly in the realm of 'go forth and dancify'.

Released on 3rd November 2008 by Egregore.

Written by Jody White.