Getdown Services Make a Glorious Mess on Massive Champion

Some bands step neatly onto the stage. Getdown Services arrive like somebody kicked open the pub door, turned every knob to eleven and gave the neighborhood permission to lose its mind.

The Bristol duo of high-school friends Josh Law and Ben Sadler released their second album, Massive Champion, through Breakfast Records on August 14. Its 13 tracks squeeze art-disco, indie dance, garage-rock grit, rave energy and deeply British absurdity into one fluorescent tube—and then shake it until the cap flies off.

Their recent Live on KEXP session is a perfect doorway into the commotion. Recorded April 21 and published June 26, the set runs through “Eat Quiche, Sleep, Repeat,” “I Can’t Die Like That,” “The Radiator,” “Caesar” and “Dog Dribble.” The video has already drawn roughly 121,000 views and 4,000 likes. Here at the Box, we love everything about this performance. It is loud, obnoxious, funny and way outside the box in the most delightful way. We are genuinely giddy about what is happening to our ears.

Law and Sadler perform as if emotional restraint has been permanently removed from the building. Shouted hooks, clipped guitar, body-first movement and beautifully undignified comic timing keep the room vibrating. Even the backup dancers and vocalists look like neighbors who wandered in from down the street and finally released their inner ten-year-old dance moves. Nothing feels polished into lifelessness. The ensemble has the gloriously free energy of a local pub filling beyond capacity while everyone inside forgets tomorrow exists.

Underneath the silliness, however, there is real feeling. The band describes Massive Champion as a record about self-pity, healing the inner child and trying to clean up its act. Law has also cited Daft Punk, The Avalanches and J Dilla among the inspirations behind the group’s style-hopping production—a family tree that makes their beautiful racket feel strangely at home here.

Getdown Services may call themselves Britain’s Best Band with a wink, but the momentum is getting harder to treat as a joke. Turn up the KEXP session, bring your least dignified dance moves and let this massive little riot carry your mind somewhere wonderfully strange.

Written by Chetuno