Fizzy Blood – Complementary: Single Review

By John Barlass on 14th November 2021 • ( Leave a comment )

Appetising taster for the imminent debut album from Leeds’ rising stars Fizzy Blood

Release Date: 5^th November 2021

Label: Self Release

Formats: Download, Stream

Fizzy Blood are new to At The Barrier, which is slightly odd, as they’ve been around the various northern music scenes – not to mention much further afield – for quite some time now. The band – Benji Inkley on vocals and guitars, Paul Howells and Tim Malkin on guitars and keys, Ciaran Scanlon on bass and Jake Greenway on drums first got together at Leeds University in 2014 and since then they’ve gathered an almost unstoppable momentum with a touring schedule that’s taken them around the world, festival appearances that include Reading, Leeds, The Great Escape, Broadmasters, Download and Bestival, and a number of prestigious support slots alongside the likes of The Dead Kennedys, Hockey Dad and Dinosaur Pile-Up. Plaudits have rained in, with Radio 1, Radio X, DIY and even The Metro (where they were featured as Band of the Day, back in 2017!) amongst the media faces that have been keen to express their admiration.

Before the pandemic and lockdown knocked us all off our stride, Fizzy Blood were also starting to build an impressive catalogue of releases. So far, they’ve got three EPs to their name – Feast (2015), Summer Of Luv (2017) and Pink Magic (2018), all of which have helped to spread the word and build the legend.

At The Barrier readers who are already in the know, and maybe familiar with the band’s recorded output may recall a grungy alt-rock sound, influenced by the likes of Queens Of The Stone Age. If you are, you might be in for a surprise – albeit a pleasant one – when you hear the results of their post-pandemic efforts. The band are keen to explain that the hiatus of the past 15 months gave them cause to regroup and rethink the direction in which they want their music to evolve. We got the first taste of that new direction back in September, when Fizzy Blood released a single, Ka Palaho Beach – their first new product in almost four years – a joyous slice of synth-pop; infectious and highly accessible.

Over the summer, Fizzy Blood have been working on their debut album – due any time now – and At The Barrier awaits its release with great anticipation – and you can be sure that, as soon as a copy becomes available, you’ll be able to read all about it in these pages. In the meantime, they’ve decided to tempt us with another taster – their new single, Complementary.

I was enthralled by Complementary, and I expect that you will be too. With a lazy big-band synth sound, built upon a solid, choppy bass foundation, it’s another enjoyable slice of clever sophisto-pop. The song’s lyrics vividly recount the mental anguish that love and separation can often bring, and they’re put across in the most endearing of ways, with lines that are jammed to the limit with words and a refrain that likens the complementary colourings of black and white, blue and orange and pink and green to the best features of a stable and successful relationship. And the abrupt cut across to Skeeter Davis’s The End Of The World at the song’s climax is surreal, but it just about works! It’s all great fun!

I heartily recommend that you give Complementary a listen. Fizzy Blood are a band to watch – and we can’t wait for their album. Watch this space…

Watch the Lyric Video to Complementary here: