PON071 (RELEASE DATE 10.10.10)

The Scratch - DIY album Ltd edition CD re-issue, download



TRACK LIST:
I RELAX TO SPIRAL SCRATCH
ROTTEN SOUL
TEXTURE TO THE FLAVA
BRAINSTORM
X-RAY EYES
TRIGGER FINGER
BACK 210
ALCOHOL'S A DEPRESSANT
SUPERMODEL
EROTOMANIAC
LOGICAL MIND


REVIEW:
The Scratch, as the title of the record suggests, got tired of waiting for the music industry to give them a chance and have decided to make their own way. The fact that they’ve achieved such a diverse yet coherent set of songs is to be applauded.
[www.whisperinandhollerin.co.uk]

PON069

The Scratch - I Relax to Spiral Scratch/Trigger Finger Ltd edition 7" single, download


TRACK LIST:
I RELAX TO SPIRAL SCRATCH
TRIGGER FINGER


Buy from iTunes


REVIEW:
‘I Relax To Spiral Scratch’ - a gloriously dumb 3 minute kamikaze dive bomb of a tune. Like the Ramones and the Damned working through the Buzzcocks (well it would be with a title like that) song book on speed complete with outer space sound effects for good measure. It should be all too much but against the odds it works. B side ‘Trigger Finger’ is a spiky, shouty, trashy piece of work with howling guitars and a great spoken run through of some of Londons lowlights.
whisperinandhollerin.co.uk

PON064

The Scratch - X-Ray Eyes/Brainstorm Ltd edition 10" single, download

TRACK LIST:
X-RAY EYES
BRAINSTORM

Buy from iTunes

REVIEW:
X-Ray Eyes/Brainstorm by England’s The Scratch is one of the most pocket-picking white guy post-punk dub dance whatsis slabs since The Pop Group’s “She Is Beyond Good And Evil”. And, yeah, it lacks some of that record’s massiveness. but the sputzy way these clowns pile grooves together on “X-Ray Eyes”, then tangle them with Beefhearty guitar slides, and strange post-glam vocals, is pretty goddamn snappy. Single review in The Wire magazine

PON063

The Scratch - Teen Idol (radio edit) download only

TRACKLIST

TEEN IDOL(Radio Edit)

Buy from iTunes

REVIEW

"An amalgam of T.Rex, Velvet Underground and other good things including a big dollop of themselves, The Scratch do eccentric English rock ‘n’ roll with weird but catchy riffs over the top of it all. At times dark and other times funny, they don't do po-faced indie. Thank God! Check them out guys!"

Marco Pirroni
Wolfmen, Adam and the Ants

PON060

The Scratch - Whatever Happened to Friday Night
Album and Download

TRACKLIST
YOU WANT THE WORLD
INDEPENDENT UNREPENTANT
FREAKSHOW
AGAINST THE GRAIN
DESTROYED BY THE LOOK OF LOVE
GIRL’S WORLD
FLICKER
WHATEVER HAPPENED TO FRIDAY NIGHT
FREAKS OF THE DAYLIGHT
TEEN IDOL
TOO BUSY THINKING ABOUT ME

Buy from iTunes


REVIEW

Something wicked this way comes. I am fairly certain that had The Scratch been around at punk rock prime time, they would have given the likes of The Buzzcocks and The Who a jolly good run for their money. It has been some time since this more classic style of punk rock has graced the airwaves, and I think that really, it’s about time. Make way for The Scratch. ‘THIS ALBUM IS A SHINING BEACON OF PUNK ROCK FINESSE’

[Tiff Woosley TSM Radio]

PON052

The Scratch - You want the world/independent and unrepentant/Teen idol Download only single

TRACKLIST
YOU WANT THE WORLD
INDEPENDENT & UNREPENTANT
TEEN IDOL

Buy from iTunes

REVIEW

The Scratch – You Want the World (Ponyland)

There’s something refreshingly uninhibited about The Scratch. Their tracks are quite minimal but all in completely different ways. ‘You Want the World’ is old school and punky, a little like the Undertones (‘Teenage Kicks’ is even referenced in second track, ‘Independent Unrepentent’). Then they throw in a proggy track like ‘Teen Idol (for 300 million)’ – bafflingly obscure and brilliant leftfield.

www.tastyfanzine.org.uk/singles88jul09.htm

PON051

The Scratch - Destroyed by the look of love/Flicker/NYF (live bounus) Download only single

TRACKLIST:

DESTROYED BY THE LOOK OF LOVE
FLICKER
NYF (Live demo)

Buy from iTunes

REVIEW:

The Scratch should need no introductions in these pages, pardoning the French but they literally piss melodies so razor sharp, acutely addictive and drilled in threads of a vintage golden era new wave flavour that we here suspect them of having access to a time travelling device.

'Destroyed by the look of love' is frankly worth the entrance fee on its own. This babe is primed and charged with the kind of wickedly audacious exuberance not heard around these parts since Supergrass started re-branding old Buzzcocks ditties as they’re own. And talking of the Buzzcocks the Shelley / Diggle et al reference markers aren’t lost on us here because 'Destroyed by the look of love' has a definite 'love bites' edge to it albeit subtly smoked in the irrefutable shade adorned soft psyche hue of 60's fuzz shakers the Shadows of Knight while cut pristinely with one of the most drop dead chorus’ this side of a garage beat pop styled Sundazed re-issue.

'Flicker' should rightly see itself garnering something of a thumbs up and some admiring glances from the psychedelic community draped as it is in softly warping lysergic tonalities that we here are thinking reveals someone in the ranks spending their spare time genning up on the finest kookily kaleidoscopic moments to be had from the Elephant 6 Collective back catalogue and decided to observe those off kilter wonky west coast moulds through a vintage viewfinder and tender the emitting refractions with essences procured of a quintessentially English eccentricity that suggests Pete Shelley leading out a magic mushroom munching Syd loving collective made up of members of the Soft Boys, the Freed Unit and XTC in their Dukes guise. Trippy stuff.

Not to be outdone 'Not your friend' lands a considerable jaw dropped punch, an unrepentant slab of searing, sneering, snot nosed spite replete with nasal drawls and a warring armoury of wilfully frantic spiked and sparring insurgent three chord hip hugging accoutrements that we here are suspecting has been born of some impish soul cross matching the DNA’s of the Godfathers with those of the Dead Boys.

No prizes for guessing that you need this in your life sharpish. [LosingToday.com]