Track Reviews // Wooze - Zeus' Masseuse

From ‘What’s On Your Mind’ (EP) (Young Poet Records, May 3^rd 2019)

As Wooze, Jamie She and Theo Spark have been ably warping a vibrant, psych-blues sound into insistent yuppy pop melodies and art rock statement singles for less than two years; but they’re dangerous. Like HMLTD and Pwr Bttm there’s a strong feeling of reclamation in the material they’ve put out – it’s hard to say when rock music and guitars were stolen by the jocks (looking at you Bruce Springsteen) but under the muscle it bleeds nail polish and eyeliner still.

The boisterous Brixton pansori bring their airy, quintessentially English vocal harmonies to bear over wonky, sassy riffs and once again deliver a barn burner. Perhaps most impressive on this cut is Wooze’s ability to carry off levity and camp humour in the lyrics, echoing perennial English odd-rockers like Vivian Stanshall, while encompassing such a breadth of influences in the sounds. There’s the overdriven quirky bombast of the verses which recalls Battles or Tera Melo and glam rock bliss in the chorus. All threaded through with an indie danciness and prog-y, tongue in cheek treatment of bookish subject matter.

Zeus’ Masseuse puts an ironic spin on the Olympian’s famed side hustle as a deific sex pest. The post #MeToo rendering of a macho man among “spat out dummies” and “rumbly tummies” is a heck of a lot of fun but one hopes that Wooze can start introducing more fleshed out lyrical ideas as they approach their first full album. Musically there’s enough kickass and sass on this track and their others to warrant the attention they’re getting; the wobbling guitar riffs, multi-tracked and pitchy, strut from start to finish as the song steams like a freight train through shifting rhythms and tones.