Although the silence between RICO'S debut album "Sanctuary Medicines" (1999) and the arrival of its' belated follow-up, "Violent Silences" has taken on "Second Coming" proportions, the young Scotsman's hardly been idle, having set up a new studio -Doghouse - in Glasgow city centre and releasing his "Mixed Up Faces" EP, where he collaborated with Tricky in the time before he knuckled down to creating this second, seething bastard offspring.
For the uninitiated, Rico's music comes from the intersection where cyber electronica and ruthless, riff-driven hard rock collide, often creating something quite glorious from the charred
remains. "Violent Silences" is livid, cranked-up fare, very much the sound of post-Millennium psychosis blues.
Opening track "Dawn Raid" is a good example of what Rico's after. It's spuzzed-up, gargantuan cyber-rock, with a huge bassline thrum and sickly, industrial strength riffing recalling everyone from Muse to Senser, and is overall about as pretty as a pantechnicon crash. Much to its' credit, I might add.
This is all to the good in several other places as well. "Crazier," Rico's surprise Top 20 hit, is another highlight, built on a shockingly catchy, skeletal acoustic guitar motif (rather like Beck pulled off with "Loser") before revving up into full-on, Killing Joke-style madness come the chorus. Then there's the eerie creep of "Recommended Dose", where Tricky again drops by with his trademark, shadowy mutter and the surprise viola truly thickens up the plot, and "She's My Punk Rock", where Rico taps into the grubby nihilism of late-period JAMC, namechecks legendary Glasgae venue Nice'n'Sleazy and (gasp) actually sounds like he's enjoying himself. Whatever next?
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This is the exception to a dark and unrelenting mindset, though, and most of "Violent Silences" is obsessed with the deathly psychosis (real or imagined) that seems to creep into daily life. Sometimes, this is effective enough, like on "Manufractured", where the references (e.g : "I dream of automatic weapons") are redolent of Massive Attack's claustrophobic darkness, but on tracks like "Freefall" and "Garden Man" you may admire his schtick, but can hardly take it to your heart, such is the club-you-over-the-head execution.
Nonetheless, this isn't a dainty world anymore, and certainly Rico's crushing technological power and Kafkaesque worldview are valid and sometimes only too credible. A little more light would be nice to balance out the shade the next time, but "Violent Silences" is still the sound of one man screaming convincingly at the powers that be.
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