Las Kellies – Kellies

There are few words more abhorrent than ‘sassy’, loaded as it is with US sitcom clichés, but it’s difficult to find a more appropriate term for Las Kellies’ blend of flirtatious banter and middle-finger-salute boisterousness. It’s a departure from their rock’n’roll origins, tending more heavily now towards a post-punk bounce with heavy shades of Cibo Matto and, somewhat predictably, CSS, although this core is turned on its head with perverse frequency.

Bife Dos delivers a confounding but nonetheless gleeful burst of 1950s surf rock and carnival psychedelia, Bling Bling heading more towards a heavy funk danceability with a loose bass groove and back-and-forth vocal tradeoffs between the trio, before transforming the bass into a weapon of reggae destruction for the dubby instrumental Adwenture. Their often unique approaches to vocals and bass are possibly the only common factors in this unpredictable collection, resulting in an album that takes utmost pride in its aura of 'what the hell just happened?' [David Bowes]