Too Pure Singles Club 2013 : Hookworms - Radio Tokyo
- Written by Kenneth McMurtrie
New year, new Too Pure Singles Club – twelve 7"s in a number of colours hitting the hall doormat throughout the year. With the advent of mp3s you don’t even need to play them as you’re emailed virtual copies too; keep them pristine for your heirs! Sell them for vast profits and buy a small island! The choice is yours …
Hot on the heels of the critical success they’ve enjoyed with debut album Pearl Mystic Hookworms benefit from the Leeds-leaning nature of Too Pure’s reach this year to become the fifth release in the 2013 edition of the singles club.
As it’s an odd numbered month we’re back to black vinyl, ensconsed in a cover with Egyptian pretensions. It’s doubtful there’s any connection between the imagery and the subject matter of A-side ‘Radio Tokyo’, a delightfully paced garage stomp of a song. A real pounder of demented organ-backed, scuzzy blues riffs & echo-treated lead vocals that whoop and holler from somewhere not quite of this dimension.
Thankfully B-side ‘On Returning’ is not a cover version of Wire’s song of the same name but another fine original from the band in a slower, end-of-the-night vein. Or at least the first third is as they can't resist crunching down on somemore space rock and letting rip with the cosmic psychedelia after that point. On this evidence album number two should see them scaling still greater heights.
