Like so many of their topless punk forefathers of the ‘80s and ‘90s (note and drool: Stateside luminaries Fugazi, Hot Water Music etc.), Dublin threesome Jogging hold absolutely nothing back.
Clocking in at a delicious 39 minutes, the first album from the previously-monikered Coldspoon Conspiracy is relentless, gushing and ten times freer than your average debut.
‘Shattered Knees’ crashes down on us, straight from 1996, while ‘Lifeline’ is a more modern stab at instrumental bliss, and one they carry off with surprising aplomb. Equally, ‘Bruises Like Bow-Ties’ thrives in thrash-happy metal from the outset but some speedy shuffling towards the end steers things away from Rock By Numbers territory.
Tracks like ‘Fostered Foes’ and ‘Shape Up Shakedown’ keep the vocals to a minimum but opener ‘Threadbare’ uses Ronan Jackson and Darren Craig’s sporadic bellowing as more of a focal point (if you’re willing to spend some time deciphering them, Jogging’s lyrics can be pretty poignant too – “And the world/ And the world is walking out the door…”).
All in all, there’s a lot to like about Minutes: the stabbing guitars on ‘Not Simple’, the endearing vocal wobbles on ‘Curtains’ and almost everything about the simply giant ‘Cleft Chin, Good Heart’. There are certainly dips to match the peaks but Jogging have real soul, teasing us from beneath a mass of dizzy guitar work and ferociously barked vocals.
By releasing Minutes in such a mega year for Irish music, these three men have some serious competition on their hands, even from within their own label (The Redneck Manifesto and The Continuous Battle Of Order down; Enemies, Adebisi Shank and Not Squares to go). If a proud little dynamo like this can go unnoticed, we can only take it as a sign that Ireland’s got some seriously good junk in her trunk right now. All the same, we shouldn’t let it.