There are a couple of people in my musical circle who now and then come out with statements that make me want to spontaneously vomit all over their pretentiousness: “Oh yeah, I’m really into Wild West psych jazz punk,” being a good example. Bleurgh.
But then I took a listen and I had to take it back; not the vomit though, I’m not taking that back, that’s gross. Because Opus Kink, a bunch of reprobates from Brighton make music that could quite easily be described as Wild West psych jazz punk and it’s bloody marvellous.
There’s so much going on here. New single Wild Bill sounds like Joe Strummer thrashing around with joyful abandon in a moshpit with The Pogues and The Coral. They’re the sort of band that I imagine discovering late at night in a little tent at some slightly scruffy mangled-mind festival after a few rums and wondering the next morning if they really were as good as they seemed last night. (The answer is yes, they probably were.)
The blurb I was sent with the release for Wild Bill suggests influences of The Lounge Lizards, The Blockheads, Fela Kuti, Tom Waits and Leonard Cohen. I’m not sure if Leonard Cohen was ever this much fun, but there you go.
After a single release in 2019 (Faster Than The Radio / Mosquito), this new one finds the six piece tearing things up on Nice Swan Records, who are putting out some great stuff at the moment - Breaking More Waves home town favourites Hallan are also working with them. To add some extra bonus musical excellence points the song was recorded in the legendary Rockfield Studios with Tim Burgess from The Charlatans.
Keep everything for crossed for Covid-19 to f*ck off and do one soon, then get out and dance to this band in a field in the UK somewhere soon.Wild West psych jazz punk here we come. You'd better believe it.
Opus Kink - Wild Bill