Avant, dark, brutally established in it’s politics and triumphant in all the right places.
Jojo Orme, aka Heartworms, is on the cusp of something huge. After making a splash with debut EP, A Comforting Notion, Heartworms’ long awaited debut LP is finally here. Combining a brooding love of poetry, gothic influences, swirling synths, nods to 80’s pop and post-punk rolled into an intriguing sonic selection.
Glutton for Punishment opens with an appropriately mysterious prelude. ‘In The Beginning’ is a mere 40 seconds of scene-setting through brilliantly foreboding instrumentation. The album quickly breaks into ‘Just To Ask A Dance’, a cut that fuses glorious synth-pop with bombastic drums and strings. It’s a menacing tune which snakes along before exploding into a frenzy of guitar. A momentary breakdown precedes the howling of feedback and thunderous guitar breaking down the door: it’s some opening statement from Orme.
Lead single ‘Jacked’ follows in some style. A more traditional ‘post-punk’ look from Heartworms, but one which is pulled off with aplomb. Again, it’s foreboding and sinister with end-of-the-world style guitars and drums – like Pixies doing a synth-pop number. ‘Mad Catch’ is a brilliantly low-fi number which struts with confidence and sees Orme pulling off some brilliantly moody PJ Harvey-esque vocal work. This album moves from strength to strength, with Heartworms displaying a fantastic range of influences and genre-bending talent.
The whole record twists and grooves like a snake in the grass – it’s sultry and moody, while treading the impossible line of melancholy and euphoria all at once. Glutton For Punishment is like Kate Bush fronting The Cure: the sheer musicality on display is something to behold. ‘Extraordinary’ includes a short key sequence that is so utterly catchy, you’ll be humming it for days on end, and ‘Warplane’, the centrepiece of Glutton is yet another sensation, packed with fervent antiwar messaging in a hark back to the glory years of protest rock with a detour via Portishead or Massive Attack.
Whilst channelling such illustrious influences, Heartworms has created something totally unique. The exceptional production values (courtesy of Speedy Wunderground mad scientist genius Dan Carey) elevate a brilliant record to something groundbreaking. It’s avant and dark, brutally established in it’s politics and triumphant in all the right ways. The musical palette on display is nothing short of sensational: the rousing final act of ‘Smugglers’ is intense and powerful: like a selection from In Rainbows, the crescendo of the record is unmatched.
Glutton For Punishment is a stellar debut effort. Heartworms pulls out all the stops to create something that cannot be put into a box. There is serious mercurial talent on show here: if Heartworms can make something of this quality so early in their career, the sky is the limit.
featured image: Gilbert Trejo
