The Comedy of Errors: Whipping Boy - Submarine (20 June 1992)

Buy this at Discogs

Sometimes, when Peel announced he was playing a track from an unfamiliar band’s album, I would be overtaken by a spirit of churlish cynicism and reckon that he’d chosen something from the first four tracks and then moved on to something else.  Given the mountain of records he was sent, this wouldn’t altogether be a reprehensible strategy to follow.  But, clearly in the case of the Submarine album by Dublin’s Whipping Boy, Peel had put in the hard yards given that the title track was the final one on the record.

Progressing through three distinct movements from its Eastern tinged opening strum, into Fearghal McKee’s echo drenched vocal promising escape into the depths of consciousness underpinned by a blend of wall of sound guitar playing off more drowsily liquid guitar sounds.  This is especially apparent from around 2:46 onwards when the playing moves from a gently smooth sound to a progressively more frantic tempo as if the listener is being plunged deeper and deeper into the bowels of the ocean.  The track foregoes the tranquility that one might expect from the concept of submersion into something more akin to an aqua based take on Pink Floyd’s Interstellar Overdrive.  But whereas the Floyd soared off into infinite space, Whipping Boy eventually touch the ocean’s surface in a cowbell/percussion shaking ending like the sound of bolts popping free of their rivets and allowing the water to flood in.  It’s breathless stuff and the near six minute running time flies by.  A fantastic piece of music.

Video courtesy of tristanheanue.