Pheromoans

Making music with the aim of becoming popular is one of the worst things that a band can do. Music is about expression, entertainment, passion, enjoyment; not about dating Hermione Grainger (I’m looking at you, One Night Only).

It comes as a relief, then, to read on Pheromoan’s MySpace page, in a blog post addressed to potential promoters, that the band have no desire to become big. This statement should not only demonstrate that the band don’t want to be celebs, but it might also quash the possibility that they are making the music that they are right now – music with minimal production, lo-fi recording means, and a seemingly care-free attitude to getting things perfect – because it’s what is hip today. The fact that they have been release music like this for years through DIY labels goes one step further to removing this possibility.

Indeed, I’d happily Last FM tag Pheromoans with “lo-fi”, as well as “post-punk” (avoid ‘garage rock’, though – this is another point they make in their blog post), but the band don’t restrict themselves to one genre alone. “Robotic Son”, for example, features guitar twangs and jangles to a plodding bass-line in upbeat and light fashion; whereas “Soft Targets” is fast-paced and frantic shout-y post-punk. “Theme To Cole’s Law” sluggishly drags with distorted vocals and swelled guitar chords reminding of T-Rex; “On The Rec Again” is frantic, jerky and screeching, evoking thoughts of riot grrrl (despite being male vocals and not referencing feminism at all); and “Funny Names” is slow-paced guitar repetitive-ness and spoken word vocals next to a wobbling and bleep-y synth, like XX Teens arm-wrestling Mark E Smith. Lots of bands would either sound pretentious or plain shit, but Pheromoans manage to avoid both.

They release their first full-length It Still Rankles in January which promises to be 17 tracks of unreleased racket. The band, who are "scattered around the South East, (which is why things happen so slow)" also promise that they'll be touring around January/February time.

Listen to two tracks that aren't on the album but might be a little what the album might sound like below.

Pheromoans - Robotic Son

Pheromoans - Sussex Tomb 1