Big Time Quell bring the fun on debut EP

GENRE-BENDING local five-piece Big Time Quell this week unleash their boldly-titled debut EP Greatest Hits.

Initially starting out as a duo fronted by co-vocalists Thomas Jones and Jamie Hatch, who both also play guitar and synth, the “whatever-you-want-to-call-them” band expanded – bringing in this website’s very own scribe Chris Cope on dynamic bass, with Robert Balfour pounding the drums and Norman Willmore adding sax appeal.

The band say their first studio EP’s five tracks are loosely based on real life experiences “including bowel mishaps and an unfortunate series of incidents on a night out in Thailand”.

A glance at the artwork and promo video for the near-six minute Bad Times At Suzy Wong’s makes abundantly clear that this band are ploughing a furrow that’s fairly unique within Shetland’s music scene.

The VHS-style footage and arcade game influences of the video are matched by a synth-heavy 80s pop sound on a catchy number that sounds a wee bit like a jazzier, proggier third cousin of New York indie favourites The Strokes set to a brutal lyrical tale of heartache.

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From Friday (9 September) the remaining four songs – the ominously-titled Brownload, Back of the Net, Johnny Lobster and Soulpatch – will be unleashed on an unsuspecting public.

Hatch said that the group were keen to explore a retro sound on the EP, with synths adding a new vibe to some of the tracks.

“We’re all definitely fans of making things sound as cheesy as possible, as you can hear with Back of the Net,” he said.

“I think the songs going forward will reflect that. Thomas and I got our synths after the EP was mostly recorded, which was probably a good thing as the EP would probably consist of covers of Toto’s Africa, the Rocky 4 montage or German titans Kraftwerk.”

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Big Time Quell’s sound can be hard to pinpoint, but Jones quipped that it is the “musical equivalent of a friendship bracelet”.

“It’s a real pick ‘n’ mix of styles,” Cope added, “with everything from rock, jazz and folk to reggae, synth and pop.”

The wacky lyric video for Bad Time’s At Suzy Wong’s gained over 3,000 views on Facebook in a few days, proving to be something of a local viral hit.

“The video’s popularity was great, and fully unexpected,” Hatch said. “We hope the amount of likes and shares we got for that video translates into people listening to the EP.”

Big TIme Quell’s Greatest Hits will initially be available on Bandcamp, with the EP due to be added to platforms like iTunes in the coming days. A physical release is also planned.