Artist: Dignan Porch
Title: Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen
Record Label: Captured Tracks
Rating: 6.0

Quite the optimistic album title isn’t it, Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen. Without sounding like pessimistic bastards but quite a lot of bad shit has happened throughout time, and in recent years it’s hardly been a happy and joyful period. Nevertheless, Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen is the title of the sophomore record by Dignan Porch. The project helmed by Joe Walsh has now mutated from a solo project into a full band arrangement to follow up debut album Tendrils.
The five piece from South London approached the making of their second LP the old fashion way by recording straight to tape without the use of overdubbing. What has been captured from these album sessions is an LP that is shrouded in fuzz with a tendency to sound pretty rough around the edges. Ultimately this is the down side to the album, the riffs are muddied by reverb and Walsh’s vocals sound like mumbles that have been recorded a million miles away from a microphone. After several spins, it is almost like fighting a losing battle attempting to interpret the talisman’s lyrics. At best Nothing Bad Will Ever Happen sounds like a collection of promising demos with inciting snippets of half cooked ideas.
The odd guitar line at the beginning of ‘Sad Shape’ illustrates the album isn’t a complete loss, as the riff echoes with a unpolished sheen that collapses into a distorted mess, while ‘Cancelled TV Shows’ shakes off the nonchalant shrug of most of the album to replace it with a visceral guitar motif.
Raw guitar music is all well and good, but Dignan Porch have doused all their best ideas in unnecessary scuzz. Underneath the primitive studio techniques lurks a promising act, they just need to clean up their schtick a little. Don’t take it too far though and sound like Nickelback…not even Nickelback want to sound like Nickelback!

Words and Thoughts of Adam Williams