Review | Lip Filler – witchescrew EP

Label: Chess Club Records

By Joe Day

I feel like my ear canals have been lobotomised. I’ve been listening to Lip Filler, an emerging London band whose new EP seems to have taken the “absolutely don’t give a shit, come on lets have a fuckabout” route of songwriting and production.

’witchescrew’ is the second musical outing since the band’s somewhat sudden emergence in 2022, and can only really be described as a cacophony of bar-spitting shin-splitting crack-open-your-head mayhem that has something for everyone who enjoys noise.

I’m complimenting them, make no mistake. I’ve been listening to The Ink Spots and Dion recently, and a bit of Lip Filler has blown the internal cobwebs to smithereens. Gone are the days of sitting by the open window with a sigh and an old picture book. Right now I’m thrashing the dishes to within an inch of their life as I furiously get the flat cleaned up before riding my bicycle so hard that the tyres come off, leaving me to scrape nothing but a redundant metal frame down Union Street.

There’s something about this band that gets the devil in you. They never stay in one place too long, darting between genres like a pinball machine. One moment we’re punking, the next we’re dancing, and then we’re doing both at the same time just to see what happens. Bars get spat as much as words get sung, which grants Lip Filler a great deal of leeway where genre choice is concerned. They could do anything they liked and it’d still be on brand.

That seems to be the core of Lip Filler’s philosophy; smash everything together and see what sticks. ‘CARLING‘ marks the beginning of the EP’s thirteen minute runtime with something akin to being clubbed over the head with a vicious square wave and his guitar mates. ‘Its not deep’ slaps a breakbeat into the fray and gives the guitars a minute to have a whinge at the splurgy arse-ended bass riff that dominates the scene.

At first it’s almost disappointing to hear more conventional tones of ‘Ashtray’, but, as I said before, first impressions can ruin your day if you don’t bin them off. The EP’s midpoint must be what it feels like to ride a motorbike up the M5 at rush hour; quite loud, very exciting and a nice way to transition between a hard day’s work and the evening wind-down.

’followup’ reminds me of early Sorry material; that’s the greatest compliment I can lend it. It’s the perfect blend of crunchy guitar and sleepy bleep-bloops that give the sloppy grungy tone I am ever-weak at the knees for. ‘Limelite’ is the most palatable of the bunch, almost sticking out from the fray with its disco-punk inclinations.

I’m being wheeled into A&E right now and the doctors are telling me my cochleas should be salvageable. They told me to stay away from the good stuff, but sometimes you can’t help it. Bands like Lip Filler manage to scratch the ever-present itch that begs for aggressive, but not quite Loathe. I can’t help myself doctor, but I promise I’ll try and turn it down next time.

Fat chance.