Carthage

Jason invited me to a jam at his place and small venues don’t get more intimate than this. I was promised ridiculous energy bristling with spite and anger. They sure delivered – sometimes you just want the music and its message. Tags of synths, strings, and soft lyrics are all thrown about, but ultimately Carthage are a punk band at heart. What’s more was the disconnect there was between the live performance and recorded material, something which I found very endearing. Stripped down of production, this London five-piece are liable to change a solo on the spot, or make up lyrics in protest of whatever pissed them off that day, even having a guest guitarist who filled in for one of the band. Their debut EP does not disappoint, either. On first listen it’s catchy, on second it consumed me. For all of you lyric heads, this is a tape you can get lost in. Crave opens with View me as you would a fat cunt whinging about their sweating folds, crying on every bite, begging to be big enough to be a Jeremy Kyle martyr. GOLD. It’s good to hear something come out of a UK basement that isn’t a droning heroin baseline – I’m ready to wake up from the Deep House coma. Heavy riffs are coming back. - Double Fifths

"I'm bored and dissatisfied with everything" comes a female voice as you press play on Carthage's debut EP, "Carthage Must Die". Somewhat fitting for a band whose founding members met on the infamous Manic Street Preachers' fan forum Forever Delayed five years ago. The remarkable thing about them - aside from their crashing punk guitars and intelligent lyrics - is that one half of this founding partnership lives in America. Despite this, Carthage have managed to write and record something that sounds like it took weeks in a studio to create and master. With samples of beat poetry, Situationist ideology and things that will make you want to read books - this is the band that Nicky Wire has been waiting for to come after the Manics, and you're going to love them. - The Zine