Ben Edge is a bit of a renaissance man. An accomplished painter, whose work has graced the walls of the National Portrait Gallery in London, he is also a crack songwriter.
Ben’s old band Thee Spivs had quite a run releasing three records of Childish garage punk on Damaged Goods from 2010 – 2013 before splitting up.
Fast forward to 2015 and Ben Edge & The Electric Pencils began as a two piece with Steve Coley playing the bass and drums. After recording the debut album they called it quits, but Ben, determined to see an official release for the album recruited Tom Wing on bass and Teodora Kosanović on drums and here we are. Glad he did because this record is a ripper.
The album as a whole is protean; this is not just 14 tracks of garage rock, as mentioned Mr. Edge is quite the songwriter. He throws darts all over the board but they almost all hit the bullseye.
The Childish influence is there for sure, and there’s less sneering than Thee Spivs, but you’ll hear loads of sounds here; Kinks, Buzzcocks, Ramones, Squeeze, The Clean, hell even Oasis. This just solidifies the effortless skill of his songwriting.
The album is out on both Almost Ready Records and the bands’ own label One Man Movement.
