Glasgow’s Dawson wrote in tippex all over your shitty school jotter; phrases that could have been sexual fetishes, obscure Soviet political slogans, made-up bands from some utopian moon-future. They fucked your denotative, well-meaning impulses with a sharp smirk. These were absurdist manifestos written in a scratchy calligraphy that bled through its serifs right onto the next page.
The band is wonderfully impossible to Google, track down, codify, or assess, having struck upon a musical and lyrical language that is poised so carefully between silliness and seriousness that it denies any critical assessment a similar surety.
But Sumshapes are not Dawson.
In fact, in their own words, they are “A bit like Dawson, but probably not as good.” (Take that Gang of Four reference you cheap Post(man) Punk, and shove it up your indexical dot-to-dot arse!)
While Leed’s finest chose to make a fast buck covering themselves — while the critic[s] made a similarly masturbatory move — Sumshapes make a not-only-nominal break from their previous selves, riffing hard on this demo, shouting quieter to be heard clearer.
• Sumshapes: https://soundcloud.com/sumshapes
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