Nothing Clean split 7” with Higgs Boson (MMXVI FHED Records / Glass To The Face Records / Samizdat Records / SuperFi Records)

Last year, Leicester’s Nothing Clean thrilled us several shades of skinny with nine combustible tracks on one side of a split 7” (with Madrid's La Letra Pequeña), co-released by three improbably-named labels. This year, they thrill us with nine more combustible tracks on one side of another split 7” (with Oslo's Higgs Boson), co-released by four improbably-named labels. Oh, how the late John Peel would have been absolutely in his element announcing these, before playing them at the wrong speed.

Again, the new record near-overflows with lyrical vitriol, but there’s a rugged discipline to the band’s high-falutin, powerviolencey howl, with the staccato stop-starts both between and within tracks adding even more excitement to the endeavour. As we’ve mentioned in past dispatches, there are traces of a UK hardcore lineage that includes erstwhile ilwtt,isott flavours of the month Scalplock and Flyblown, but the riffage and the sheer *purpose* of this also remind us of the early grindcore legends.

Nothing Clean are not only on fire but sound like they’re on fire and - in keeping with the Midas touch being worked by Claudio Ranieri just down the road at the King Power - we’re not sure that’s there’s anything (on either side of the Atlantic!) that can touch them right now.