Long ago on a football pitch just outside PMT, I met Barney and Jackson. Two lads in a hardcore band, a scene I didn’t know much about, but was intrigued with no the less. Whilst I don’t venture into hardcore too often, post-hardcore I really do have a love for. Mission of Burma, the Hated, anything heavy but heartfelt. I knew the two of them messed around with 4-tracks themselves, in fact I think they were one of the first people I found out owned one.

It wasn’t long into starting Contact Buzz Jackson and Barney mentioned recording some of their new stuff, West Midlands Emo, they called it. There was talks of doing an ep worth of music at one point, but for now you're gonna have to settle with this. I dropped the car at the Rose Bowl, the above ground one so I had to put a ticket in the window. They’re the only car park I know to use Evology. What’s wrong with PayByPhone? Barney leads me to this middle Beckett Building and down to a room he’s had free reign of all year. He’s been recording some bands down there with this massive greenscreen (Might have to utilise it before he loses custody of his hidden gem).

Harry the drummer is doing plumbing at this point, so in the meantime I go for a new record in setting up the drum mics. Not my quickest, was continuously distracted by all the toys (Mics) Barney had brought from storage. Always try out the expensive stuff, but they never quite sound like home. Once Harry’s done with being a real adult and joined us in the green screen room, we got him straight in and on the drums. A real hardcore drummer, I can’t help but feel the other lads really had to peel him away from blast beats, but he’s such an integral part to the sound. Hard hitting and in a big room like that, there’s nothing much we could do, it was gonna sound massive.

Harry’s definitely the energy of the band, with the three brummies in tow. First up was Declan on bass, maybe the most relaxed member of the band, a rhythm section dynamic duo. There’s a lot going on in this recording and it's pretty relentless, but the bass I think is so gluey. When Declan listened back to his take his reaction was ‘yeah it’s alright’. “Would you change anything?” “Nah”. Virtually the same response I’d get from all three lads from Birmingham. They loved it on the inside though, I'm sure.

Jackson also chose to sit down to record - it really is all about being laid back with these lads. We just went with pure distortion, no reverb, we're already gonna get some from the huge room. Barney again with just distortion - Ratts and big muffs scattered across the floor. I lent them my fuzz gun but it was too ridiculous. Will I ever find a practical use for that dude? Barney focused on the lead line more, a few little plucky leads too. Now we had our wall of sound, all we needed were some sweet brummy vocals.

Jackson took center stage whilst Barney hovered over his shoulder. We were thinking about using the telephone mic, but with our joint experience with the medium, we knew it would just get lost in the mids. Instead we opted for a few vocal effects and my lovely ODR-1 that's been getting a lot of love lately. The first time I heard Jackson get truly excited was when he heard what that sounded like. ‘Oh, it's like Guided by Voices!’. Too right it is, Jackson. Too right it is. I hope he doesn’t get mad at me, but I heard a twinge of Liam Gallagher in this recording. Certainly leant into his accent which is overdone in virtually every section of the country apart from the Midlands. (I feel like I’m taking too many swipes at their accent, I love how they sound!).

Overall I think we have another certified Contact Buzz banger. Wall of sound, great vocal takes, crazy addictive hooks and has that GBV flavour. And this is technically their old stuff. They’ve got a few new ones that are apparently even better, so stay tuned for that and who knows, maybe we can fulfill the notion of an EP at some point?

For Fans of: Ovlov, Teenage Fan Club and Johnny Foreigner