We are immediately thrown head on into ‘Feel This Way,’ a trashy, balls out punk song, that I’m sure has caused one or two injuries to gig goers in Southampton. This song oozes energy and charisma, but I find myself becoming slightly bored of its incessant fuzz, and somewhat muffled and rushed vocals.

Next up we have aptly named ‘Shoot The Blues.’ This track couldn’t be any more different to ‘Feel This Way,’ and I may go as far to say the only thing the two songs have in common is their now increasingly hard to understand vocal line, that almost ebbs in insignificance beneath the noise of the guitars. On its own ‘Shoot The Blues’ is a very average song. Again, in comparison with ‘Feel This Way,’ not much happens in the 3 minutes worth of material. I feel as though I am driving up and down the same strip of road again, and again, passing equally boring, and vastly contrasting scenery along the way.

Having reached track three I thought to myself “the only way is up.” I hoped that this last track, ‘She Said’ would be the saving grace, I really wanted it to be. But no. Only three seconds after hitting the play button I was again thrown into (and ultimately spat out of) this whirring machine of fuzz and noise. By now the vocals (if you couldn’t already tell) are really starting to frustrate me. I don’t have a clue what this guy is saying, or trying to tell me, let alone what ‘She Said’ to him.

I feel that Mach Schau need to explore more varied song structures, because otherwise countless numbers of people like me will tire of the noise. I hope Mach Schau heed the ‘positive criticism’ I have laid out, otherwise, I’m afraid, they will forever linger in a “Farmers Arms” near you.

Andrew Lockett