Single Review: S.C.U.M – Whitechapel
There’s a lot of hype surrounding S.C.U.M at the moment. Their debut album on Mute Records will be released on 12 September and they’ve released the promo video for ‘Whitechapel’, the second single from the album (this release will follow 2 weeks later, on 26 September). The 12″ single will come backed with exclusive track ‘Blindness’ and both the vinyl and download feature the Carter Tutti (Throbbing Gristle / Chris and Cosey) remix of the single track.
Make no mistake, ‘Whitechapel’ is aesthetically pleasing and ticks all the mainstream boxes. It’s expansive in his psych-rockness, and the echoes enhance Thomas Cohen’s vocals. The trippy video, directed by ‘transformative’ artists Tim Noble and Sue Webster, comes out more pretentious than I’m sure it was meant to be; the bare bones installation brings the music more front and centre, which is probably the look they were going for.
If you like the less garage, more shoegazey, more emo bits of the Horrors, you’ll absolutely adore this. My main issue is that there’s something vaguely unsatisfying about this song: that it’s been done before.
6.5/10
The ‘Whitechapel’ single will be released on both 12″ and digital download on 26 September on Mute. Download the Light Asylum remix of the single on this previous MP3 of the Day post. Read Coco’s interview with Cohen at Field Day here. Catch the band on the Emerge NME Radar Tour this October.
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