Friends for 30 years and former bandmates in The Sabres Of Paradise and The Aloof, drummer Rich Thair and bassist Nick Abnett have now teamed up as Spraycan. Getting together for unplanned, improvised jams, in Thair’s Buntys studio, ably assisted by only rudimentary 80s analogue machines and effects units. Two of the raw, first-take results of these sessions have been cut to a 12 for Todmorden’s Golden Lion Sounds. 

“RahRahRah” is a slow, ponderous piece of post-punk dub. Shaken by bursts of shuffling percussion and coloured by strange, shadowy tremolo twang. Rocked by gunshots, ricochets, and drums like distant, echoed explosions. Abnett’s lead backed by trippy, gated vocals. 

“Italiano”, possibly taking its name from Thair’s antiquated Orla organ, is faster, funkier. Its blunt, brute force recalling joints by acts such as Gramme, or Thair’s other outfit, Number.* Abnett’s terrific, untutored bark biting like Sleaford Mods’ Jason Williamson, or, perhaps, a non-privately schooled Genesis P-Orridge. 

Another old spar, and Sabres associate, Richard Sen is roped in for a remix. Fastening the track to sliced and diced flashes of Kraftwerk’s “Tour De France”. A bionic Jonzun Crew-like B-line grounding the frenetic, flickering rhythm and Sen’s freshly added, trance-y bleep melodies. These manipulations masterfully moving the music into the area of edgy, indie, post-industrial, electronic dance. Synthesising something “alternative” that could have easily spun in mid-late 80s White Isle sets alongside classics such as Information Society’s “Running”, or “Los Ninos Del Parque” by Liaisons Dangereuses, way before “Balearic Beat” became a much misunderstood and overused term. 

*Aside from Red Snapper and Dicky Continental that is. 

Spraycan’s debut EP can be ordered directly from Golden Lion Sounds.