Dearthworms: Sapsucker
LP | DL | Stream
Out 26th July 2024
PRE-ORDER HERE
The bizarre and wonderful world of Sheffield five-piece, Dearthworms, unfurls in spectacular fashion through their debut album Sapsucker. Ian Corbridge delves deeply into the dark crevasses for Louder Than War to find a spectral void of jagged noise, discordant rhythms and ferocious intensity all of which blend into a magnificent piece of art which needs your attention.
If you are fed up with the norm and the mundane and becoming disenchanted with all that surrounds you and you fancy diving headlong into a parallel universe populated by snivelling, pathetic men, tales of eroticism, ruminations on death, and even a giant worm rooted in North-East folklore, then you are very much in the right place at the right time as I introduce to the world of Dearthworms. But before we delve too deeply, let’s get the introductions out of the way first.
Dearthworms are a Sheffield five-piece band comprising Nick Potter on vocals and keyboards, Andy Sissons on drums, Andy Ball on guitar and vocals, Juni Rothwell on bass and vocals and Finn on guitar. Whilst all the members have a longstanding history of being in various other bands in Sheffield, their coming together as Dearthworms is a natural by-product of the DIY space in Sheffield known as Hatch; a place that has existed as a creative incubator and experimental breeding ground for the band since forming. As Andy Ball explains, “It’s allowed us to go at our own pace. We are quite relaxed and slow with what we do.”
Dearthworms are a band with no frills attached and no career aspirations. It is perhaps unusual and yet utterly refreshing to hear that, as Nick explains, “We are proudly a hobby band. That’s a big thing. We’re doing this for fun. There’s not a careerist mentality. A lot of this is therapy for us. It’s a chance for us to sit in pubs, play gigs, berate people, and get our weird sad thoughts out of our heads and into music.” But do not be fooled into thinking that this somewhat carefree approach to life and music is in any way detrimental to what you might expect to hear, as one listen to their debut album, Sapsucker, will definitely put that thought right out of your mind.
Whatever the various band members collective past experiences have been, it is immediately evident from the collection of nine songs that comprise Sapsucker that they have channelled a truly eclectic mix of styles, sounds and rhythms which blow a huge hole in whatever your standard musical ideologies may be. And surely that’s a good thing, right? Where else would you get a bunch of songs about erotic practices, aphids and renaissance mercenaries all soundtracked by a cacophonous multitude of experimental post-punk, discordant rhythms, jagged noise, and off-kilter pop and rock with the spirit of The Fall and the Pixies coursing through its grooves? Well right here actually.
Waste Of Skin opens the album in a distinctly understated manner with a sequence of haunting, almost mind-bending experimental electronica which slowly builds up an aura of intensity, until that is immediately shattered two minutes in by the explosion of a wild and grinding rhythm which heralds the anarchic Mark E Smith style vocalisations of lead singer Nick Potter. The pulsating rhythm and grunge fuelled guitar continue until they finally erupt into a cacophony of noise as Nick screams out the ramblings of a deluded man, declaring “Bachelor of heaven, prince of divorce .. I am the harbinger of change and right decisions.” The comfort and coherence of standard song structures is already in tatters and we are only one song into the album. I’m hooked already……let’s move on quickly.
Strike Low bursts with more conventional energy with a thumping beat and jangling guitars before it completely shifts gears as vocalists Nick Potter and Juni Rothwell engage in some infectious call and response vocals amidst a strangely alluring hook that exudes from the song. As a song whose narrative is focused on erotic practices, written from the perspective of a male praying mantis before it shifts into human narration, the chaotic live footage and abstract violence presented in the accompanying video seem to align perfectly with the mood.
The bass driven and fractured rhythms of Blessed Child seem to plunder even darker corners of the mind with an intensity which would only be matched by the likes of the Bad Seeds in a moment of deep personal repentance, running with the constant mantra of “I am wasting away” before finally burning out with an incendiary guitar riff. The constantly shape shifting sonic patterns of The Worm Swallows The Dirt follow an altogether different path as it crosses the borders of the unconventional in terms of its sound, narrative and ever discordant rhythms. Little doubt that their interpretation of folklore is enveloped in their exploration of the surreal. As songwriter Nick explains, “The record is about weird people and weird experiences. I’ve got a really vivid imagination and I like getting in the head of strange characters.”
Rorthide is a staple of the band’s live set and what they describe as their “obligatory cowboy song”. Nick explains its inspiration as follows, “I got obsessed with an image of an empty house on a big American plain a while back. We then wrote a nice and direct song imagining someone living there and being totally awful to everyone he meets.” Its constantly shifting mood driven by odd time signatures are clearly becoming a feature of the album as well as being a key part of the band’s psyche.
On this point guitarist Finn is happy to explain that “We like things that are fussy, weird and intricate. We love sneaking in a bit of weird dissonance or odd time signatures but it’s making sure that stuff is not just a gimmick. It shouldn’t feel forced. We don’t want people to think, oh, that’s a deliberately wonky song. It should feel natural but it’s just off-centre enough that it pulls you in a different way.”
The haunting quality of Boys In The Wood taps into Nick’s penchant for surreal, eerie and vivid lyrics, at least right up until the songs explosive sonic conclusion. And this exploration of the surreal appears to stem from their endless fascination of the humdrum cycle of everyday life. As Nick explains, “There’s a mundanity and normality to what we do in a way. But within that normality we tap into a kind of nauseating weirdness.” Landsknecht’s Message has all the hallmarks of a classic post-punk rampage as it delves into the leftfield musings of a sad man drifting off into a daydream about being a medieval king.
The heavy chugging riffs of No Surprises make a slightly surprising shift into more mainstream rock territory, notwithstanding the ever scene shifting rhythm patterns which weave in and out of our inner consciousness. But its all for good reason as Nick once again explains, “We really love the idea of pub rock as a genre. Not that our stuff sounds like that, but we have a running joke that a song only fits the bill if we can imagine someone sitting at the bar turning around in surprise and nodding while holding a pint to a section of it. I think this allows us in our heads to fit more big rockin’ riffs in.”
Warlock Of Change closes out the album with pulsing rhythms and extended angular PiL style guitar riffs which allow us to drift into chaotic sonic landscapes which we didn’t even know existed before we started this venture into new and unchartered musical territories. I guess it was the only way to finish this astounding piece of work.
Through their debut album Sapsucker, Dearthworms have created 33 minutes of beautifully formed and immaculately destabilised sonic chaos which will creep unknowingly into your inner psyche before you have chance to even draw breath. It is a collection of songs which shift and weave almost seamlessly without any semblance of reason amidst a tumultuous tide of ever shifting discordant rhythms and moods, whilst still presenting an overwhelming appeal to your inner senses which you will find hard to explain and even more difficult to ignore.
Above everything else, Sapsucker is a triumph of invention and creativity over conventional form and is DIY punk in its purest form. It’s an album that fully embraces the dysfunctionality of so much of what we call life and will most certainly be in my top ten list for the year come the end of 2024.
You can pre-order the album here.
You can find Dearthworms on Facebook, Instagram and Bandcamp.
~
All words by Ian Corbridge. You can find more of his writing at his author profile here.
We have a small favour to ask. Subscribe to Louder Than War and help keep the flame of independent music burning. Click the button below to see the extras you get!
