An interesting story surrounds the re-emergence of Get Your Feet Back on the Ground. Late 80s, specifically in 1989, Grabbel and The Final Cut were formed in Hamburg and played the scene on what seems to be the most flourishing years for shoegaze. Though some of shoegaze’s excelllent records were produced before ’89 (Twins’ Head Over Heels in ’83, ’85 for The Jesus and Mary Chain’s Psychocandy), the peak of the genre’s popularity reached its heights with the release of personal favorites Loveless by My Bloody Valentine and the seminal Nowhere by Oxford imports Ride. During this period was when Grabbel and The Final Cut produced self-released cassettes distributed in and out of the German town including the EP Get Your Feet Back on the Ground. After playing numerous shows and with the reign of Detroit in rock, Grabbel and The Final Cut let the curtain fell in 1996 wherein the band until then remained unsigned.
In November last year, a short, turning-point-of-a-message from Mike Sniper of Captured Tracks pulled the band back to its feet, out of obscurity and into the consciousness of the kids who might have been left out. Captured Tracks intended to issue an archive of lost-and-found shoegaze releases and had chosen Get Your Feet in the series. Few weeks after that, Get Your Feet Back on the Ground was set to a formal release on January 24, 2012. Preview was put up in Bandcamp and the three-track EP was released digitally December 20.
The backbone of what makes Get Your Feet a breakthrough does not entirely rely in the story itself. Part of what makes listening to the three songs a masterful experience is the nostalgia that emblazon the record. Knowing that “Psycho Popsong,” “The Finest Things” and “Out Of Work And On The Dole” had been shelved for 20 years, floating half-remembered and not googeable is a kneejerk to a record collection surviving from torrenting discographies of long gone musical era. Prime irony lies in the fact that it gets to be pressed in vinyl decades after a time where vinyl was the standard. The story and the encompassing nostalgia are of secondary to how this piece of music is like.
“The Finest Thing” by Grabbel and the Final Cut
‘Wake up my little brother/ wake up the time has come,’ opens “Psycho Popsong,” a three-minute waft ride of dreamscapes alluding a wall of sound chorus that sounds like shards of glass falling, transformed into a blanket of lights before it lands on your head. The drums on this one is taunting, chasing after hellacious guitar noise. “The Finest Thing” is easily the most melodic in the set. Easy to tap along, punk-clenched drums along a reckless whirring guitar and electric sonic palate wash away the saccharine lyrics of the track. If “Psycho Popsong” testifies Grabbel and the Final Cut’s original shoegaze sound, “Out Of Work And On The Dole” breaches that pact as the track forays into a more post-punk sound. Impetuous drumwork dictates the pace, teeth to teeth with the seething bass that follows the trail of the guitars that spread like a wildfire on a drought field, or like fire shooting off from a lighting, violent and warbling into resolute chaos— anything that can cause things inflamed.
In mere ten minutes, Get Your Feet Back on the Ground summons the years of woozy and distorted intimations of shoegaze and noise rock. Considering the masculine sound Grabbel and the Final Cut provide in this EP eschews the group to be catalogued with the rest of the music one can tap on these days which kind of worries me. Shall this be charted as one of 2012 releases or one of shoegaze gems unearthed to give rock music a kick in the shins. Either way, a Hamburg secret is out and even decades after its recording, Get Your Feet Back on the Ground is still as relevant and timeless, a could-have-been missed treasure that is discovered with a noble purpose.
Grabbel and the Final Cut are Stefan Zachau, Gernot Dornblüth, Sascha Kotzur and Christian Grabowski.
Bandlinks: Bandcamp. Facebook. Blog.
Filed under: Album Commentaries, Grabbel and the Final Cut Get Your Feet Back on the Ground Album Review, Grabbel and the Final Cut Get Your Feet Back on the Ground Hamburg Gremany, Grabbel and the Final Cut Shoegaze Band, Grabbel and the Final Cut: Get Your Feet Back on the Ground Captured Tracks, Review Grabbel and the Final Cut: Get Your Feet Back on the Ground
Wow, what an awesome review!
Oh wow. Thank you for appreciating the write-up. It’s an honor especially if it’s from the band itself. Mabuhay!
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