Wonk Unit - Nervous Racehorse LP

"Wonk Unit are arguably the future of punk rock; I fully accept that that’s a bold statement, but having had ‘Nervous Racehorse’, the fourth full length album from the London outfit on rotation for the past week I feel they entirely justify the claim – I’m told they began as a performance art project, essentially a vehicle for vocalist Alex Johnson who was responsible for writing all the tracks on this gloriously diverse album; that being the case ‘Nervous Racehorse’ sees Wonk Unit take up the punk mantle and effortlessly demonstrate just what punk rock should sound like.

The cover art displays four sink estate scallies, none of which are old enough to have read Mark Perry’s infamous “This is chord, this is another, this is third… now form a band!” quote – however Wonk Unit have absorbed the ethos of the line, and have produced an album that’s is utterly at odds with the perceived conventions of punk rock, and what can be more ‘punk’ than that?

Opener ‘Wood Pigeon’ a wistful organ led lament, as Alex positions himself as a humble bricklayer looking out the yuppies in their “big flash motor” his vocals delivered with measured contempt, before ‘Lewisham’ – a master class in how to write a ‘punk rock’ song, energy, crashing beats, hooks a butcher would be envious of as Alex recalls tales of getting out of his face in Lewisham…’Nan’ remains in the obvious punk realm though veers towards hardcore as Alex in the space of 90 seconds sneers “Nan is old, pisses with the door open, scowls at my friends, laughs when her grandson gives her a hug, spills milk on the floor, woo hoo”…live, this would see the spark mass slam dancing which would then continue through ‘Go Easy’ a raging life lesson to well-known Wonk Unit fan Teddy Fourlegs as they plead that he eases off on the booze.

‘Siobhan’ really took me by surprise, on first listen I thought genuinely thought it was one of those pressing plant mistakes, then Alex’s distinct vocal breaks through coupled with the same organ from ‘Wood Pigeon’ before morphing into a bizarre Country style romp – I was trying to identify quite were I placed the similarities and the best I could come up with was Lilly Allen’s ‘Not Fair’ in some sort of mash-up with the boys from Elbow – seriously it’s that weird, but as insanely catchy." - Louder Than War