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Exotic Klaustrophobia
(2005/Narrominded) |
We got this in the post aeons ago but it has only just emerged from the smoking rubble of Clear And Refreshing's summer purge, and we're lucky it has because it's a pretty damned good mini-album from a Sonic Youth-worshipping Dutch three-piece. It starts out all charging guitars and drums with
Past Vs. Present Vs. Future, which combines streamlined lo-fi punk with something that flirts with metal before it eventually mutates into an almost Danzig-like outro.
When Winds Begin To Sing About Our Troubled World starts out as a more downtempo number, alternating between powerful climaxes and effects-laten atmospherics. Look at the track title again; think about it for a bit; you don't need me to tell you what it sounds like.
The rest of it follows in much the same vein, although it has to be said that
Ghost Ship is the pick of the bunch. It's deadly serious sounding, with an almost operatic sense of overblown drama that keeps bringing back those images of Danzig, but balanced with a kind of punk experimentalism more on the wavelength of Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. it's a compelling and thrilling ride.
-Ian Martin, Dec.20.05.
