To head up their latest cluster of macabre blues rock classics, The Fury Tape, Dead Freights have turned the ‘Shot Girl Summer’ phenomenon of post-COVID sun tans and beach parties inside out with vocalist and guitarist Charlie James dedicating their inverted tribute to: “Sex, dead queens and rotten meat”. On this glam-infused stomp, haunted harmonies, jabbing guitars, ringing one note piano and a blistering riff, side-by-side with James’ twisted poetry, create a brilliantly unsettling slinky seether of an EP opener.
Live track ‘Sauvignon Blanc’ sounds more speed-fuelled romp than a homage to French white wine but, either way, this addictive ode to trysts over vino is fiercely primal in it’s rough and ready gig-recorded form.
One of the group’s best compositions yet, ‘Asking For A Friend’ is the kind of deliciously dark anthem we’ve come to hope for from Dead Freights. Purring bass, an irresistible hook of a chorus with atmospheric background “ooohs”, asking “Would you make me lonely again? I’m asking for a friend” – a double-entendre of a question either maintaining distance or begging for intimacy and an instrumental tempest of a culmination brings the strongest track on the EP to a definite halt.
The past few months have seen some major personnel changes in the Dead Freights camp but The Fury Tape EP, produced by their label boss – The Libertines’ Gary Powell, is all the evidence we needed that the downright dirty four piece have barely even begun.
The Fury Tape was released on 22nd March 2024 via 25 Hour Convenience Store records.
To mark the EP’s release Dead Freights are on tour throughout the start of May with tickets available at the usual outlets. You can stream the entire record wherever you normally get your tunes. We’ve put the Spotify link down below so you can even give it a listen right now:
Edge of Arcady 