ABSTRACT EDUCATION (LIVE)

Fairly concentrated in the heartlands of the post-industrial north, working men’s clubs have long been a mainstay of variety, snooker and lukewarm bitter. Now we can add proto-post-punk to the mix. Recorded live at Rowland Road Working Men’s Club, Leeds, this EP transports listeners to the front row via the raw and the sublime. Played in order and in full, this is Eades’ critically acclaimed ‘Abstract Education’ EP as you’ve never heard it before. Frenetic, kinetic and leaking overdrive, the live versions of the tracks snarl with a grit and a beating heart; Eades don’t just deliver these songs, they mean them. Born out of the disappointment of being unable to tour during a pandemic, the band’s frustration is balled into a knuckle-crunching lurch of collective energy. Eades navigate these choppy waters with skill and control, leaning back to deliver moments of cleaner signals into the mixing desk with bomb disposal dexterity, before lighting the charge on their own pedalboard fireworks. It’s an aural assault that combines excitement and strategy.