Hmmm. This band has been hailed as a fusion of jazz and hardcore/punk and has drawn comparisons to everyone from Nation of Ulysses to Refused. I guess I could see a small hint of that on some level (I hear absolutely no "jazz", unless you stretch the reference in regards to the drumming, which is often the best thing about the release), but... let's be honest, folks... this is annoying hipster bullshit through and through. It's frantic, chaotic, irritating "punk rock 'n' roll" that reeks of ultra skinny kids with bad hair wearing tight clothes while doing their best Mick Jagger chicken-walk moves and flailing around on the ground making a racket on their instruments. Sure, there are horns and keyboards in a couple of tracks, but it all sounds like nonsense, and horns and keyboards do not "jazz" make. The drummer is tight as shit (to their credit the guitar parts are also pretty well controlled for being so grating and obnoxious) and the bassist picks hard as hell, and thankfully the screaming vocals are mixed deep in against the music and don't get all that high-pitched or grating, so... I can listen to this, but... to be 100% honest it all strikes me as completely hokey, hollow bullshit under the guise of "art". The LP is on Three One G so that should give you a better idea of their sound, and I don't like most of the stuff on that label, so... go figure. "Vulture Kontrol" lets the basslines play a larger role and has a nice rhythmic flow to it that I actually dig, and prior to the annoying horn break "Lipstick SS" has some intense speeds that actually sound pretty nice, with "Lawnmower Love" blasting through some faster paced riffing that stands out as a pretty rockin' track (infinitely better than all of the others), but those are the only songs that hit me at all. The recording is fine for this stuff. It's thick and warm and the bass tone is amazing, so the rhythm section is damn fine in my book. I also think the vocals have been well handled and the guitars don't get overly acerbic either, I just hate the riffs and the songwriting. The layout's all done with crude illustrations and messy handwriting that can be hard on the eyes, but it looks consistent and different. The lyrics are totally fucked. I don't even know what to say about that aspect, so I'll let 'em speak for themselves: "Sexless skeleton, where are your eyes? I can only see frown lines and that cigarette hanging from your lips. The ashes are burning a hole in your thigh. It's only icy glares in Deutschland. They march in X-rated rows of high fashion, cold-blooded crows." There are numerous references to sex and Nazi Germany throughout, so... whatever. It's probably too "subversively intellectual" for a peabrain douchebag like me to understand, right? I just have no real appreciation for most anything that comes across in this vein. They're not the worst band of this nature that I've hear, and if every song was as good as "Lawnmower Love" I'd credit them for taking me by surprise, but... this ain't for me, sorry.
[Revelation]
Running time - 23:59, Tracks: 10
[Notable tracks: Vulture Kontrol, Lawnmower Love]
Revelation Records - http://www.revelationrecords.com
