A SIX STRINGED DAGGER: MANCHESTER’S THE SICK FIX SHARE NEW DOUBLE A SIDE SINGLES
SINGLE REVIEW | THE SICK FIX – SHOE SHOPPING/LIQUID GOLD by Gracie Erskine
Dirty, sleazy and dark: you wouldn’t invite it anywhere else but your ears. Manchester muckers The Sick Fix, are stamping their boot print on the scene with their latest double A side release (very old school), Shoe Shopping/Liquid Gold.
Shoe Shopping squelches through with new wave synths and wet, raspy vocals that gurgle through the track. A surround sound of chaos catalysts the tracks explosion, scratching guitars and a muffled eco-system of sound conjure an almost cinematic bridge. ‘Don’t bring me up, don’t bring me down’, repeats through like an apocoloyptic comedown – yet ultimately the song brings you up. A vision of a tune, that’s if the vision was a domino of Jager bottles clashing down the bar with lights swinging.
There’s an easy homebox to bands like the The Clash, or an even an diluted tinge of Sex Pistols, but it’s easy to embody these classic, British punk pioneers. However, there’s a more modern cut, which seems to tangle indie favourites, Fontaines D.C/Wunderhorse style sleaze into the track, making The Sick Fix that bit more memorable. Which is exactly what Shoe Shopping is -memorable. The guitar riff chews through you incessantly, a pleasurably chaotic earworm.
On the more recent reverse, Liquid Gold recites a textbook raucous. It’s racing, sharp and a six stringed dagger. With a head banging, crowd crushing, ‘where’s my other shoe?’ speed alighting a Molotov of track made for sweaty basements. The younger two-fingers-to-the-world sibling to the more polished bite of Shoe Shopping. It’s RP public information announcement embodies the English punk banner of the band, harking back to it’s 70’s roots in all it’s anti-establiment glory. It’s quick with a belly full of fire, a blink and you’ll miss it, that’s until you’re on the beer-soaked floor with a wet-dog style mop.
For a young band, these lads have got a special little rocket in their pockets with these two tracks, and in all advice, set it off in that sweaty basement and watch it go boom. Catch the Manchester quartet at their upcoming dates below:
- June 27th – Blue Posts, London
- July 10th – Academy 3, Manchester
- July 25th – Tramlines Fringe Festival, Sheffield
- August 30th – Aug Venture Fest
- September 25th – Sally Cinnamons, Leicester
- October 23rd – The Cluny, Newcastle
