Frozemode: ASBO BOYS
Self Released
Streaming Here
Out Now
London Trio Frozemode answer their critics. MK Bennett referees.
At some point, the snake will eat its own tail, or Pop Will Eat Itself, as the Grebo pioneers from Stourbridge pointed out. Their bio says they are from London but London’s a big place, with many pressure points where steam needs its release. Our capital may be fucked but it’s still consistently producing top-line modern machine music, cutting-edge by its psychogeographic nature, it’s an anthropological, sociological version of Hip Hop’s marketing of The Beef, but in that post, post-modern way, which stretches to the name and title.
Frozemode, a name that sounds like it was birthed from someone checking the settings on their Casio G-Shock do things the new way, Generation Z-style in terms of production, though the lineage is Sleaford Mods and Bob Vylan, reportage from the front line of the everlasting tightrope walk that is British life and its attendant culture.
ASBO BOYS is a retort, a flicked V sign in the direction of their trolls, who are likely claiming victory in some subreddit or other. Using the comments as lyrics is a simple but brilliant idea, turning the whole thing into recorded Art, the quick, cheap version of the Wu-Tang’s album for sale to the highest bidder, a Scally Machiavelli. It works though, the dichotomy of the internet in one fell swoop.
Opening with a fantastic punk riff, it runs at an athlete’s pace, the lyrics clever and clear, “I ain’t never had a fucking Asbo in my life, I’m a well-behaved boy, I get my values straight from Christ,” with a lovely, distorted bass line, the vocals are a singular call and response, as they list the imaginary class crimes they have committed. Not taking themselves too seriously, one of the two choruses is, “I’m a 5 foot 6 girl and I’ll still fuck you all up.” and with that peculiarly British way of rapping at speed, it’s a brilliant pop single. And it is POP, with the amount of La-la-la and sing-along improv on show, it just wants its Champions League cake and to eat it otherwise.
The production is shiny steel, the riff resembling 60’s Garage Rock but still sounding up to date. It is two and a half minutes of jumping around a pub backroom with your best friends shouting “ASBO BOYS”, and you might need nothing more than that.
Well received by the edgy and cool (Notion, Clash) and the not so edgy but still cool (Kerrang) and playing the Big Three in adopted rock terms (Reading, Leeds and Download) we can look forward to a summer of their particular bounce, with the mixtape DEMODE 2 arriving in August.
Give in to it.
Frozemodes Insta | Twitter/X | TikTok
All words by MK Bennett, you can find his author’s archive here plus his Twitter and Instagram
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