Review: Evil Doings of an Evil Kind by The Janitors

From the opening guitar riff of ‘Greed’ we are immediately in the land of The Janitors. A place where heavy psych guitar mixes with Middle-Eastern rhythms that give the band its distinctive sound. This, married with a strong political message on this EP (check the title) and you get a pretty potent combination which is going to prove to be decisive and divisive: In both respects I am on the side of The Janitors.

They have hit the spot both politically and musically. The aforementioned ‘Greed’ had a relentlessness to it which burrows its way into your brain and delivers its message with startling efficiency. ‘Black Wheel’ is a real tune which continues with the diagnosis of the problems with the rise of the right wing in Europe. The anger is palpable, the bile is overflowing, the tension is mounting as the intensity of the track bubbles up to a frenetic boiling point.

This boils over with ‘Here They Come’ as the right wing enemy infiltrate and threaten: ways of life, inculcating the young, and spreading hate. This is a really complex track which gives a foreboding for the battle to come: the repetition slowly but surely ratcheting up the tensions, which by now is off the scale.

Will there be a resolution?

Again the clue is in the title of the final track ‘There Will Be Blood’. It opens to a beat as if of an army marching. Again the persistent reverberation adds to the tension and gives a real edge to the message, a message that is both stark and uncompromising (a great way to also describe The Janitors’ music).

This is a political record in the great tradition of the 60s psychedelia and 70s krautrock. It is also great record musically which is heavy and contemporary. It bangs out the message and takes you along with it. It is a complete work and I hope that the band will be performing it as such at their up coming gigs…

Updated note: they did and with great success.

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