Like ESG? Try Las Kellies

Sticking up for the Buenos Aires branch of the Kellies empire (who knew that the plural had an "i"?) here. Las Kellies is an all-girl, post-punk outfit from Argentina...where they haven't gotten the word yet about the 20-year nostalgia cycle shifting to grunge from Gang of Four and still soldier on in the stark, sparse, syncopated style of early 1980s bands like Delta 5, ESG and the Slits. Anyway, there's a new album out called Total Exposure a bit slinkier, a bit less spiky, more dub, less jitter...but quite good. It's been out since mid-September, but I haven't seen a word about it anywhere. Shame.

This one has reggae great Dennis Bovell singing (he of Matumbi and a long-running partnership with Linton Kwesi Johnston).


This one is just the girls, but still heavily borrowing from dub/reggae etc. (Sounds like the Slits, dunnit?)


And this one, from the last album, just in case you didn't get the ESG connection.

Las Kellies

Post-punk from Argentina? Why not? Especially if they're going to slip in an ESG cover. My review of Las Kellies runs today at Blurt.

Las Kellies
Las Kellies
(Fire)


Las Kellies' cover of ESG's "Erase You," slinks and struts with an animal grace, its spiky minimalism grounded in grunting, primitive bass and embellished with scrappy, taunting vocals. These three Argentinians - like their South Bronx forebears - are clearly women who will take no shit from anyone, but who, left to their own devices, can make a party out of the barest elements. Las Kellies, the band's third album, throws a quick nod to ESG, as well as the Slits, the Raincoats and Delta 5, shouting multilingual jeers and boasts to a backslanting, reggae-flavored beat.

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