Following the success of their debut album, Higher Power, The Dirty Nil have dipped into their back catalogue to bring new fans a taste of what they were doing before. Minimum R&B takes one new track, a collection of 7 inches, plus the EP Smite and bundles them up into one big batch of alternative rock goodness. The question has to be, does their past live up to their present?
Opening with ‘Fucking Up Young’ you quickly get an idea of what The Dirty Nil are all about. There’s a slow drawl to the song and it and ‘Verona Lung’ almost come across as laid back as they crawl along with their fuzzy guitars and slurred vocals. You can imagine them being picked out in smoky rooms while people wave along to the music, drink in the air and head in a different world.
The Dirty Nil aren’t afraid to rock though and ‘Little Metal Baby Fist’ takes those fuzzy guitars and speeds them right up. ‘Guided By Vices’ meanwhile is a rollicking punk song, bouncing along in all the right ways. They are a band equally at home with the meandering style of ‘Hate Is A Stone’ and the full blown punk attack of ‘Pale Blue’.
There’s no denying that some of these songs will pass you by. ‘Cinnamon’ is unlikely to stick in your head and ‘Beat’ takes the slurred vocals a step too far as it occasionally verges on being incomprehensible. However, when they are ripping through the almost hardcore stylings of ‘New Flesh’ it is easy to forgive. The Dirty Nil write good alt rock songs, and this release makes it evident that that’s a skill they have had all along.
If The Dirty Nil had come out of Seattle in the early nineties, they’d have been snapped up by a major label during the grunge boom. Their fuzzy alternative rock is a throwback to that time, and yet it’s got enough fire in it that it never sounds dated. Minimum R&B doesn’t quite hit the consistent heights that Higher Power did but there’s no shame in that, and it speaks more of the quality of the later than the weaknesses of the former. As it stands, this is a good release which will tide fans over until The Dirty Nil return to the studio.
