Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol. 1, by Volk Soup

Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol. 1

by Volk Soup

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Cassette + Digital Album
Pro-dubbed nut brown cassette, with pro-printed inlay and on-body black ink print, in a clear library case

Limited to 50 copies world-wide

Catalogue No: CN259

Includes unlimited streaming of Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol. 1 via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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1.	Rosemary 05:23	buy track
2.	Wiping Arse Blues 01:32	buy track
3.	Billionaire 02:05	buy track
4.	I Shot Him And I Ran 02:54	buy track
5.	Virile Young Man 02:38	buy track
6.	I Don't Wanna Share My Face 01:39	buy track
7.	Beware An Ancient Door 07:10	buy track
8.	Limeade 02:15	buy track

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LIMITED EDITION 12" VINYL AVAILABLE AT:
volksoup.bandcamp.com/album/incompetant-hits-the-singles-vol-1

“Operating somewhere in between the controlled humour of Pere Ubu and the structured mayhem of Bilge Pump, this compilation demonstrates that they’re one of the finest new acts on the circuit. ‘Beware an Ancient Door’ genuinely sounds like a mental breakdown while the jaunty new wave style melody on ‘I Shot Him and I Ran’ gives way to a percussion battle. Genius!”
- Christopher Owens, Predominance 29, The Pensive Quill
www.thepensivequill.com/2023/05/predominance-29.html

Volk Soup have been building a steady body of work. Over the past couple of years, they’ve been consistently releasing singles and pairing them with B-sides of equal stock. Now all compiled together, ‘Incompetent Hits: The Singles Vol. 1’ is a tidy encapsulation of a band at their embryonic best.

In the midst of the pandemic they released their debut single ‘Rosemary’. It was perhaps the manifesto of this earlier period. Instantly labelled as post-punk, thanks to the chanted refrain, looping bassline and stomping drums it felt akin to announcing that there was repetition in the music, but what was to say they’d never
lose it?

After an 18 month period with no releases, a personnel change and the birth of their soon-to-be-notorious live performances, Volk Soup released ‘Billionaire’. A short, bitter yet sardonic finger pointing at capitalism’s poster boys, ‘Billionaire’ is a clear example of Volk Soup having fun and cracking the whip. Though it was B-side ‘I Shot Him and I Ran’ that suggested there was more than the usual guitar stabbing that earned them their post-punk membership. A frenzied, breathless opening 60 seconds leads into an afrobeat break down before tearing it all back down again. Perhaps there was more going on.

A month later they would release ‘Virile Young Man’ and its B-side ‘I Don’t Wanna Share My Face’. Recorded in the same session as the previous A and B, this new release seemed to keep the band on a similar path.

Things would change in September of 2022 with the release of ‘Beware an Ancient Door’. Over the course of the preceding nine months Volk Soup would be refining their stagecraft, becoming known as one of the more caustic stage presences amongst the Leeds scene. In that time they’d added horns and another guitar to the set up and had written a bunch of new songs. The song taking this new-look Volk Soup forward
and beyond the horizon of an exhausted post-punk scene would be ‘Beware an Ancient Door’. The cry of “a nonce is a nonce is a nonce” would be a line in the sand, they were ready to push things a little further. Louder Than War would claim of ‘Beware…’ that it is “much more expansive than expected, careering across jittering
beats, blasts of brass and sudden jolts that smash you in the face with its sudden turns. An easy listen? Couldn’t be further from it. A vital listen, no doubt!” The B-side to ‘Beware…’, and the song to close ‘Incompetent Hits’ would be ‘Limeade’. A short, paired back country ballad is a fitting end to the early years of Volk Soup. A firm
reminder that no one knows where it’s going from here, but with the hope that it shakes off the tired pigeonholing that comes with the post-punk label.

"Volk Soup are the soundtrack to our broken world, our drowned world. They don’t hold back from their targets, and nor should they, nor should we."
- Louder Than War album review
louderthanwar.com/volk-soup-incompetent-hits-the-singles-vol-1-album-review/

"Young, intelligent, nihilistic, petulant, inventive and everything we thought Yard Act were going to be, but aren’t."
- Louder Than War 'Billionaire' single review
louderthanwar.com/volk-soup-billionaire-single-review/

"a brand new take on the sound and ideas from Ron Johnson Records and the artier end of Cleveland Punk"
- Louder Than War 'Virile Young Man' review
louderthanwar.com/volk-soup-virile-young-man-single-track-reviewed/

"a schizophonic post-punk brutalist takedown of modern social power dynamics…and Prince Andrew."
- Louder Than War 'Beware An Ancient Door' single review
louderthanwar.com/volk-soup-beware-an-ancient-door-single-review/

credits

released May 19, 2023

'Rosemary' and 'Wiping Arse Blues' produced and mixed by George Riley at Penthouse Studios.

'Billionaire', 'I Shot Him And I Ran', 'Virile Young Man' and 'I Don't Wanna Share My Face' produced by George Riley at Penthouse Studios, Mixed by Danny Blackburn at his home studio.

'Rosemary' and 'Wiping Arse Blues' written and performed by Harry Jones, Ryan Walker and Joe Willis.

All other tracks written and performed by Harry Jones, Ryan Walker and Luc Gibbons.

All tracks mastered by Frédéric Alstadt at Ångström Mastering.

Illustrations by Harry Jones.
Photo on cassette inlay by Summer Crane.
Layout and design by Ewan Barr (Fehler).

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Channelling sonic diversity since 2013

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