Day In Day Out

CD single diffusion music www.myspace.com/the universaluk

A Liverpool quartet with Mod leanings, The Universal are a proper rock band with roots in the Kinks/The Action era but as influences rather than any kind of template. Life is grim out there for many and the essential purity of expression of electric guitar rock is like a battery, standing outside whims and fashion and best of all a mystery to those who TRY to be ’street’.They don’t really get it and never will. You cannot imagine Simon Cowell or Mr Waterman ever listening to this kind of punchy music for pleasure, as there’s nothing for them to airbrush or sweeten up or mould and milk for profit.

Lead track of the two on this single is ‘Day In Day Out’ is the panned-stereo guitar assault that they look like they are capable of delivering. Vocalist/guitarist Terry Shaugnessy sounds edge-of-angry and the axework has a tinge of The Creation about it. I suspect the drummer is a Ruts fan, that band’s drummer Dave Ruffy is a longtime pal of your scribe and wrote the book on versatile postpunk rock stickwork.

Coupling cut ‘The Time has Come’ has a great stabbing tempo with shades of ‘I Can’t Explain’ chop-chords though the solo has soul-blues drive. If the lyrics are pretty generic for this kind of music, that doesn’t detract from the group’s overall passionate and precise impact. Good to hear an outfit who seem to care more about their sound than how they look and that momentum will give them strength in getting heard amidst the torrent of lame acts that infest the airwaves at present. Their album has arrived here so we’ll try to feature that in the near…

Pete Sargeant www.fairhearing.co.uk