As you look around from print to radio, from stage to playlist, Britain is undoubtedly neck-deep in a new wave of post-punk that floods every aspect of our guitar music culture. As bands clamor for the position of most avant-garde or to say that they’ve broken as-of-yet unseen ground, certain groups are able to have more legitimate claims than others. One such outfit is challenging London quartet Legss, whose jigsaw-like art-punk catalog has been unfailingly witty and innovative.
On their latest piece of music since the breakthrough 2020 Doomswayers EP, Legss take on a distorted, snarling tone that fits perfectly around singer Ned Green’s post-ironic lyrics. As Green notes, ‘Hyde Park Coroner’ presents “a welterweight, advantageous, snake oil coroner, drunk on yesterday’s sacramental wine, presides over a ghostly whodunnit, fit with harmonic episodes of subterranean love, and a synth line to raise the dead to.” While on a weaker voice such a narrative may seem like middle-class pretentiousness, Green’s snarl menacingly sells every word he speaks into the mic. It certainly helps too that relentless drum rolls and a surrounding wall of guitars produced by Alex Greaves (the man behind the sounds of Lice and bdrmm) allow no questioning of Legss’s pummelling attitude.
In a textbook example of music mirroring narrative, “Hyde Park Coroner” also winds and bends, mirroring the very Serpentine that Green speaks of. While much of the piece finds its home in the fierceness of punk, there are equally fluent passages of art-punk and even a hint of brit-pop. As the snarl of the first few minutes winds down, Legss take us through moments that would be fit for a Black Country, New Road track before letting a sensitive synth come from underneath that brings forth memories of late 90’s rock emotion. As ever Legss’s brilliance leaves a compelling impression. With their future plans still shrouded, “Hyde Park Coroner” serves as a beautiful stopgap till we get more from the quartet.
Words: Varun Govil // Photo: Will Reid
‘Hyde Park Coroner’ is out now. Stream the track below.