Loitering & Sauntering. Zatopeks

Interesting title, Loitering & Sauntering, as Zatopeks' music is everything but engaging in these activities. The band plays punk like they used to a long, long time ago. It starts as hard as it can and from there it only seem to go faster and faster, like my boss of over 40 years ago often announced at the start of the working day in C&A's distribution centre.

Zatopeks. I faintly hear stories of a famous Czech-Slovakia runner from well before my time in my head. The name of the band most likely is not derived from Emil Zátopek. Reading up on the band I find that the guitarist's name is Zatopek. That sounds more like it. The U.K. band, with two members who moved to Germany before Brexit came about, plays punk music, but do not blot out the melodic prowess that is part of the songs on Loitering & Sauntering.

If anything, I would start with The Undertones of old as an example. Had the Northern-Ireland band had the recording tools bands now have in their bedrooms, it may well have sounded as big as Zatopeks. You will find a little The Specials in there when a ska angle comes in. Punk however is the first and last step of Zatopeks.

The album kicks off with 'The Kings Of The Hotel Mile'. The song simply sets the standard of the album. It has power, pace and a great melody. A chorus that will work in every pub liking punk music to be shouted along to at the highest volume. It's the kind of song that makes this genre so much fun. The singing of Nick Deniro is the voice of an older man, who can still easily keep up the tempo. His diction and that sneer when singing about after 1989 "we had nothing to believe in" or "the fascists and the church", sung twice to let the point sink in, is so just right, that you can hear that a) he means it and b) he believes it as well. The band is absolute top behind him. Sebby Zatopek. Spider, Sammie the Giant, Pete Sematary and Jo Mangled make up the band. It's clear that all members do not mind to obscure their names from us. (And Sebby Zatopek?, is the name derived from the runner after all?)

To think that I was not a punk fan in the second half of the 70s at all. (Okay, I had 'Never Mind The Bollocks' and 'Lust For Life'.) Let alone the extremely angry bands of the 80s. For me, as I'll have written before on this blog, it started with 'Basket Case' and 'Self Esteem'. Come 2024 and I simply love an album like Loitering & Sauntering.

For the best of reasons. As I already wrote, Zatopeks combine the pop punk of The Undertones with the 1990s punk band's energy. The result is an album that simply steams. The band members must spend hours running and / or in the gym to be able to keep up this tempo. Man, it is fast. I have already heard several good punk rock records in 2024 but it may well be that Zatopeks' is the pinnacle of the year so far. I am going to present 'Central European Time' as example. The pace is relentless, melodically the song is superb, the pointy guitar solo everything it should be. The whole song is simply 100% right. Do punk songs come any better this year? I doubt it.

Those not loving punk, there are a few slower songs on the album, but not less powerful. And that melody? That is just everywhere.

Wout de Natris - van der Borght

You can listen to and order Loitering & Sauntering here:

https://zatopeks.bandcamp.com/album/loitering-and-sauntering