Manchester, a city renowned globally for it's musical heritage. A city that has birthed band after band that have since gone on to take the world by storm. A city which has seen the inception of such musical phenomenons as The Smiths and Oasis but not a city you would immediately associate with punk music. Sure it's had there's been a select few; Buzzcock and Sonic Boom Six to name two, but there's never been anything to revival the indie bands from the 1980s onwards. That's why it's so refreshing when you do find a band who are still keeping a punk aesthetic alive in a scene swamped by lads with fringes in pointy-toed shoes. Naymedici are one such band.
A mixture of both Baltic and Irish folk music with a double measure of punk energy and aggression, the and come off sounding like the illegitimate bastard spawn of Gogol Bordello and The Pogues. The sheer ferocity with which the band ply their trade is as invigorating as it is alarming and is surely the reasoning behind their relentless touring schedule which has unsurprisingly taken them to Ireland three times and seen them headline a number of stages across UK festivals, garnering an impressive number of fans in the process.
First single 'Paddy McGee' is a booze-fuelled stomp-along which will undoubtedly earn them favour with fans of bands like Dropkick Murphys. The quintessential Irish fiddle drives the song forward more than expected while a chunky guitar fleshes out the track. Singer Mike King has managed to effortlessly encapsulate the energy and aesthetic of Celtic punk wholeheartedly here in what is sure to be a fantastic live track. However while 'Paddy McGee' is highly endebted to bands such as the aforementioned Dropkicks and Flogging Molly, the bands newest single 'Koo Koo the Bird Girl' is a different story. Drawing on Eastern European influences 'Koo Koo...' is an off-kilter and slightly bizarre tale about a girl who joins a circus due to having a pigeons head. Surreal it may be, but the song itself is a riotous affair that is unusually reminiscent of a polka.
If the rest of
Naymedici's repertoire bubbles with the same kind of energy that the
three songs I've heard do then they're on to a winner. What people
who have never experienced this kind of music live before don't
understand, is just simply how fun it is. If the bands recordings are
in anyway indicative of their live performances then they're
certainly someone you should check out. Put simply Naymedici are
making classic, old fashioned, booze-fuelled music to shamelessly
spill your pint too. And they're bloody good at it.
All images courtesy of Jen Hingley .
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