Fire Engines

Fire Engines (MySpace) was another one of those post-punk bands that gained most notoriety twenty years or so after they recorded anything, after they should've made the impact! (It's really ashame to see this happen so much, but at least they're revered now, I suppose.)

The Edinburgh-based group played a very angular, very rough, very sharp and angst-y breed of post-punk that was reminiscent of early punk groups from Britain as well as more artsy types like Gang of Four, Wire, Siouxsie and the Banshees, A Certain Ratio, Delta 5 ...
For the most part, their stuff is pretty damn hard to digest, but it's clear that they were seminal by their accenting, angular guitar that would stick out through the vocals like daggers; their pseudo-funky simple bass lines and cacophonist drumming ...

Loads of bands have noted Fire Engines when discussing musical inspirations and admirations. Franz Ferdinand has most notoriously pointed this out (I think that's the main reason why they're so "big" now), but the sound and style is mimicked and built upon by other groups like Maximo Park, Liars, Deerhoof, and a plethora of others.

Anyway. Acute is releasing a compilation of old stuff by the band on October 2 called Hungry Beat. Check out this spectacular footage from 1982 here, too!

Fire Engines - Meat Whiplash