Detractors Of Fuzz Need Read No Further

'Aural Palate Cleaning Exercises' is the second album from Bristol's Milo's Planes, and their first as three-piece. Much like the name suggests, it really is an album built around sonic catharsis, and whilst reaching the end of the record isn't quite the same feat of endurance as reaching the end of the albums which influenced it, there's no denying that by the time the closing notes of the album have rung out, and only the buzz from the barrage of feedback is left resonating in your ears, you feel completely cleansed.

Much like that kid from primary school who wasn't allowed fizzy drinks, but somehow managed to neck them anyway, Milo's Planes clatter and rattle with willful abandon, blissfully unaware of the inevitable pending sugar crash that's soon to hit them. And with 15 tracks clocking in at under half an hour,  you'd be forgiven for thinking that the album was the product of three kids suffering from ADHD, and, having lost their Ritalin prescriptions, opted instead to pick up some guitars, some old '80s punk records and smash the living shit out of everything in sight.

 Kicking off with the calamitous opener of 'Two Feet in a Crowd', and showing little in the way of relent throughout, initial listens suggest that 'Aural Palate Cleaning Exercises' is a slapdash collection of under-produced bedroom recordings, and to an extent, it is. But the fact remains that despite its acerbic, sandblasted production, '...Exercises' is an album that has been painstakingly toiled over; singer/guitarist Joe Sherrin spending months tweaking the track-list and adding the snippets of radio samples which litter the record. As a result, it's both the embodiment, and the antithesis, of the DIY scene which the band holds so dear.

Drawing influence from the likes of Rites of Spring, and Dag Nasty, one can easily imagine the kind of racket that these lads make. Rather than just aping the bands of 1980s DC however, the influence of bands such as Pixies and Pavement is also prevalent, and as such gives '...Exercises' weight and credibility in more than just the punk circles from which it spawned.

At its very heart though, 'Aural Palate Cleaning Exercises' is a punk record, and despite the occasional indie aesthetics that rear their head from time to time, the sheer ferocity, the youthful tenacity and the unequivocal  urgency that careens through the album is what makes it the blistering release it is. And whilst it goes without saying that the DIY approach certainly won't be to everyone's tastes, one could do far worse than sticking this on, turning it up, and letting it clean their body of all those impurities they picked up from listening to bands like Royal Blood. A deep cleanse this may be, a spa treatment, it definitely ain't.

To find out more about Milo's Planes click here.

To visit Milo's Planes Facebook page click here.

Words by Dave Beech

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