Trogons

I've been trying to find some information about and hear more music of Trogons since better-blog Pinglewood posted about them back in November. I figured that I'd wait around and, given how great the song was that was shared back then, information, more music and a buzz of excitement would have fallen in my lap by now. For some reason it hasn't, and Trogons still seem as little known now as they did back then - a mere 138 Last FM plays from 51 listeners and only 1 post on HypeMachine, at time of writing.

Trogons are based in London, and are apparently formed of current/ex members of the likes of Kasms, Betty and the Werewolvees, Spin Spin The Dogs, and The Human Race (posted about on BF here). Their sound is dark psychedelic rock - with distorted guitar twangs, underlying unsettling synth sounds and brilliant, dark and troubling female vocals - as well as some hints of both 60s pop and 70s prog. It possibly shouldn't work, but it most certainly does, and these few words can not do it the justice it deserves.

This blog post is unlikely to give them the success they deserve as a band, but hopefully they can find it somehow or another. The Marc Riley session a few days ago should help, as would buying their music; do that here and here. Listen below, too.

Protest Song no.678 - Trogons

HEAVY DRAGOON - Trogons

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The Human Race

If there’s one blog it is acceptable to steal the ideas and featured bands from, it’s No Pain In Pop. They seem to be so ahead of everything that even if you don’t get around to posting essentially one of their posts as your own for almost a year, it doesn’t matter as nobody else will have caught on yet anyway.

Indeed this is the case with The Human Race. I downloaded the two free tracks from No Pain In Pop in January and decided recently that it was about time I did some more ‘research’ on this band, only to find that HypeMachine still wasn’t riddled with adoring love letters to the band members.

The description from the blog of the label releasing their EP calls the band “drone punk” which seems about as accurate as describing them in two words as possible – although this description may have you imagining the band are a little more slow paced than is actually the case.

The band would probably fall into the lo-fi punk category as well as “drone punk”, but falling like one of those Tetris shapes that almost makes a line along the bottom but doesn’t quite – their “lo-fi” feel is probably more a necessity rather than a choice so the band can’t quite be lumped in with the rest of this tag. “Incantation” features repetitive and noisey bass buzz and drum rhythms with screechy guitars and atonal vocals that accompany much of their Duality EP; “Insane Trip” opens with a bass-line that feels The Drums might have made a guest appearance on the end of the EP, before the atonal and semi-monotonous (this sounds like negative criticism, but it isn’t) vocals kick in with far more sincerity than The Drums could ever muster; and “Brain” has a fuzzy pop-punk guitar riff straight out of the Jay Reatard book of ‘how-to’ and bass follows suit shortly before the vocals reveal “my brain is sick of MTV, my brain is sick of pornography.”

The EP is a real gem and I feel privileged to own a copy; especially considering it was limited to 50 copies. Incredibly it still hasn’t sold out, so head to Savoury Days to purchase the tiniest little CD ever and get yourself a free poster at the same time. Stream it first if you don’t trust my judgement.

Download Incantation and Insane Trip from No Pain In Pop here