EP REVIEW: IRKED: IRKED (Wrong Speed Records)
IRKED are a five-piece DIY punk band from Newcastle who have been making lots of friends with their snotty, noisy punk racket since forming in 2022.
After a couple of digital singles, this self-titled EP is their physical debut, albeit a couple of months later than intended after their original record label went belly up.
The band are all veterans of the DIY scene, in bands like Biscuit Mouth, Blómm, Cave Suns, Frankie & The Heartstrings, Lavotchkin, Pet Crow, Pure Graft, Tough Tits, Shy-Talk and Weekend Faithful.
Debut single Backstreets saw them named as BBC Introducing ‘Ones to Watch 2024’, and they have opened for the likes of Big Joanie, Benefits, Part Chimp, Hey Colossus and Loose Articles.
IRKED play three-minute blasts of urgent, snarling, politically-motivated punk, served with a salty dose of humour and sass. Their songs are full of energy and punctuated by surging riffs and off-kilter rhythms.
Opening track Snakes is about being so paralysed by fear that you can’t move, and Helen Walkinshaw’s yelped vocals remind me of no less an icon than Poly Styrene of X-Ray Spex. The song gets more frenzied as it goes until, until it reaches a howling climax.
Backstreets, up next, has a swaggering riff, and addresses the problem of toxic, entitled masculinity and how women daren’t walk down a street alone. It’s like a more pumped up Amyl & The Sniffers.
At less than two minutes, Crippling Empath is the shortest song here. It’s full of vim and vigour as Hells demands: “You said you had a sweet thing, then why you so sour?“
Lanzarote sees IRKED deliver their verdict on years of Tory sleaze and warn: “The worst is still coming, the worst is still coming!” Thankfully, the recent general election result has rendered this one slightly out of date, but the sentiments stay the same.
Things are wrapped up with recent single Move, a prime example of IRKED’s infectious radgy sound. It’s about striking a happy work-life balance and dealing with disingenuous people, and the lyric “Have I got shit on me face, why are you staring at me?” made me laugh out loud.
Having seen IRKED live and now listened to their debut EP, I can recommend them to anyone who likes their punk hard, fast and opinionated, but with plenty of humour. This EP will do nicely until a full album drops.
