By Oliver Shasha
Self proclaimed Doom-Pop 4 piece Walking Bicycles resume their reckless assault on industry conventions, brutally converging menacing performances with a contemptuous ethos towards modern society. New single ‘Fat Cat’ is a bleak composition, it’s simple but raw character serves to expose the mainstream as a mere cog in the broader infrastructure of oppression. Like much of their now lengthy discography, ‘Fat Cat’ is not just a song, but an agitated declaration of anguish, and of disdain at the powers that be.
Sonically the sounds and the intricacies of which to take note are minimal, it is in fact the rawness of these few components that the listener should apply a distant gaze towards. The lead vocals are convoluted in tone but provocative in performance, and are candidly reminiscent of 90s hard hitter Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth. Together with roomy drums and dissonance echoing throughout the guitar lines, the music oozes with a suspenseful feeling of pain and dread. With little space to breath we’re drawn in to this one-on-one interrogation with the music, pondering our every step and our every move.
But behind the bleak and abrasive musical profile, exists a deeper shade of purpose. Plagued by a fateful opposition to the judicial system and a twisted culture of deviance and greed, Walking Bicycles translates these reflections into their sound. The music itself exists within a metaphorical backdrop of a crass, dystopian time. A lapse in all that is moral, presided by a broken world, constructed upon the values of ignorance and hostility. Depressing at heart, ‘Fat Cat’ is an Orwellian undressing of the normality with which many of us have come to accept. In Walking Bicycles’ 15 year middle finger to the establishment, ‘Fat Cat’ is a ruthless expression of everything they stand for.
Listen to ‘Fat Cat’ here: