THIS WEEK I’M LISTENING TO...SEVENDIALS – A Crash Course In Catastrophe (Cadiz Music / Creationyouth)

There’s a fine line between genius and insanity, and opening an album with a cover of ‘Number One Song In Heaven’ probably teeters on the brink of either. Not that the guys in Sevendials would be bothered. Apparently taking their name from Seven Dials, a part of nineteenth-century London you wouldn’t venture into dark, the trio – as befits their individual back catalogues – don’t care for convention and thrown the rule book in the fire. Vocalist Chris Connelly, guitarist / bassist / keyboard player and programmer Mark Gemini Thwaite and drummer / percussionist Big Paul Ferguson have between them served time in the likes of Killing Joke, Ministry, The Mission and Murder Inc, and their debut album, ‘A Crash Course In Catastrophe’, is a huge melting pot of these influences with an awful lot more stirred into the mix.

Sevendials_band_shot

Overall, there’s a fair bit of Bowie crossed with the Sisters Of Mercy in the overall result, both in Connelly’s delivery and the song construction as electronica and fierce, punchy guitars vie for the limelight in songs like first single ‘Zodiac Morals’, the wonderful ‘Wolves’ and ‘Before You Make Your Distance’. A second cover – a bouncy rendition Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight’s 1983 ‘Obsession’ – features a duet with Ashley Bad and defies expectations by still managing to be heavy while keeping its disco heart at the same time. It might sound off-piste but, as Monty Python’s Leonardo Da Vinci famously says, “it bloody works, mate!”

It’s an eclectic collection of songs, but its diversity is just one of the album’s core strengths. Any genre needs musicians ready and willing to spit in the face of conformity, and Connelly, Thwaite and Ferguson are happy to do just that. There’s a fine line between genius and insanity, and that’s the very territory these guys inhabit. It’s going to be very interesting to see where they go from here.

Video clips:
‘Zodiac Morals’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2y30ED4Ob9g
‘The Number One Song In Heaven’ - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivO8u2EzObQ