!!! really are something else. Recent second album "Louden Up Now!" was and remains a potent crossover melange of wiry danceability with its' hooks in both classic, post-punk spikiness, and despicably lithe grooves that are the epitome of NOW. The end result has been that !!! are one of the hippest names of all to drop right now, but that's largely irrelevant as it's !!!'s startlingly funky music and unbelievable live presence that counts and will ultimately ensure their reputation.
A highlight from an album positively stuffed with the buggers, "Hello? Is This Thing On?" is a nervy, bug-eyed ride that simply enthralls from start to finish. The intro is reminiscent of Andy Gill's melancholic guitar work from "Solid Gold" (the fractured sadness of "Paralysed" initially springs to mind), but in a short while, the band have slid in and "Hello..." snakes its' way into a surefire groove with nimble basslines, tense guitars and John Pugh heroically riding his hi-hat. In feel, it reminds this writer of the long forgotten, but brilliant New FADS (early '90s Mancs who peddled a similarly brilliant, spacious funkiness), but with Nic Offer's breathless, verging-on-psychosis vocals and the dramatic percussiveness vying for elbow room, it could only ultimately be !!!. Needless to say, it's perfect dancefloor fare for any generation.
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Keep tuned in for the exclusive B-sides too. "Sunday 5:17AM"'s lonely, headcrushing beats usher in all manner of bloopy, electronic misadventure and faux-falsetto vocals, before some radical, Eugene Chadbourne-style horns get lobbed into the insistent, psych-dance cauldron. It's as insistent as hell, but probably even better is 'Thomas'n'Eric's Rub & Tug Throwdown' mix of "Hello? Is This Thing On?" where the source material gets reshaped to come on like a thrumming, motorik little blighter which just will not let up and merely laughs at you as you get caught up and scratched to buggery on the niggly guitar motifs. The heartless, but brilliant swines.
Let's have a look at the scorecard, then. Brilliant album? Yup. Run of classic singles? Gotcha. Possibly the best live shows on the planet at present? Rhetorical question. 2004 is looking increasingly like !!!'s year.
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