THE FELINES - SINGLE REVIEW

The Felines - Daddy Walk

The Felines – Daddy Walk (Dirty Water Records/Hey Girl! Records)

Release Date: 6^th August 2012

Jeg elsker katte. That’s ‘I love the Felines’ in Danish and after listening to this new release I think it’s a phrase you should learn quick smart. You see, the Felines are an all-girl rock’n’roll trio hailing from Copenhagen who are bringing melodic garage-punk back to the masses. Lead track Daddy Walk is a simple blues riff with three part harmonies and stomping drums. It’s like the musical ability of early White Stripes mixed with the energy of the Hives and the vocals of a Scandinavian Veruca Salt. Simple but sumptuous. The second track on the A-side (I love that this seven inch has 2 A-sides and 2 B-sides) is an instrumental slice of atmospheric noise called The Sneak. I say instrumental but that’s only true if you don’t count the guttural scream that punctuates the driving, swirling, Dick Dale guitar riff.

The B-side (still loving it) features the delightful track Boots which is about as cute as a garage-punk track can be without ever resorting to the Ting Tings-esque plastic ‘atitooood’. Lead vocalist Asta Bjerre sings one of those great lines that you remember from the first time you hear it when she mews “If you had to choose, would it be me or your boots”. It doesn’t take much imagination to picture these three sirens enthralling the indie boys of East London with their tunes but there is nothing overtly sexual about the music the Felines produce. It’s sassy, smart and sashays out of the speakers like a drunk biker trying to find his hog but settling for a moped, that’s a given, but this is music made by a gang of friends who just want to play their instruments and see the world. In that sense there are a lot of parallels to be drawn with early Long Blondes material and that can only ever be a good thing.

So it seems that the love affair between the UK music scene and Scandinavian music is set to continue with the Felines so you had better get practicing – altogether now “Jeg elsker katte” (safety warning: this also means ‘I love cats’ so you may attract some weirdos if you start shouting this at a punk gig in Copenhagen).

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