Deadbeat CircusArtists loath to see their music pigeonholed into one genre or the other, yet Waterford natives Deadbeat Circus have the chutzpah to label their own genre and call it “scumbag rock”. Funnily enough, it suspiciously feels like plain old indie rock just devoid of any production trimmings. On the basis of the ‘Cabin Fever’ EP, they’ll be alone in this genre. Attempting to move between garage rock to more hooky tunes, it should be a winning formula. Deadbeat Circus would have been served better honing their songwriting before unveiling their debut EP, ‘Cabin Fever’, for critical dissection.

If the aim was to capture the energy of their live shows, it hasn’t succeeded. Translating the kinetic spontaneity of live performances onto record just doesn’t mean playing with wild abandon. Committing it to record means it has to have enough panache to bring even a lo-fi punk ethos out. Deadbeat Circus took the decision to eschew any digital techniques which could have enhanced their EP.

The EP starts promising with doom-laden intro of Black Ashtray which eventually morphs into a passive mid-tempo tune without a major hook in its chorus or verse. The tone shifts to the lighter and quicker, yet mundane indie pop of I Like The Sound Of It. The backing vocals of “hey, hey” give it a cheesy quality and it could have done with being two minutes shorter. Sexless Love and Pretty Temporary suffer from stodgy tired riffs that could have been nicked from Status Quo B-sides.

Over the four tracks of the EP, lead singer Glenn Colclough, sounds like a neutered Josh Homme, and never generates the passion or detached cool that each of the tracks required. For the majority of the songs it’s supposed to be scuzzy and have that rawness about it. Yet it feels like someone has taken an angle grinder and removed any edge the songs should have thrived on. This is dreary stuff.