Ex-members of Fat Cat faves WIVES, NO AGE blend the same U.S. punk sound with experimental psychedelia and ambient feedback, turning their backs on the juke-box in favour of mind-bending bursts of epic noise.
From the sub-pop surf distortion of ‘Every Artist Needs A Tragedy’ onwards, this is something of an acquired taste, in the same sense that the MOLDY PEACHES are. It’s a place where long-wave frequencies rule.
Enter the thumping DIY crash of ‘Boy Void’ - with the ‘So obvious’ vocal hook the only decipherable line amidst a drum beating, siren sounding, steam kettle jam full of loud noise, apart from perhaps the word ‘Bleeding’. Do they mean my fucking eardrums?
On the beatnik experimentation goes. Despite the fuzzy pre-breakfast ambience of ‘I Wanna Sleep’, an incidental piece, what’s emerging from the static is a garage sound where the only pulse is one jump-started by automatic-fire bursts of guitar. It’s largely distorted, and made mostly out of skipping rythms, piss-weak vocals and crashing cymbals. ‘My Life’s Alright Without You’ is pure punk, from the ‘I hate You’ lyrics right down to the clumsy drum fill.
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Yet on the other hand, by the time ‘Sun Spots’ drifts seamlessly into ‘Loosen This Job’, it’s clear that the band are playing to their strengths when using extreme amplifier settings to create ambient soundscapes. It’s something that you have to tune into, unless you are already on this wavelength (man), but the layered deep chill that descends has the same microscopic fractal shifts as Alex Patterson’s work with THE ORB.
‘Dead Plane’ jump-starts the pulse, causing palpitations after a lengthy drift through looping space and ‘Semi-Sorted’ is built on top of a muffled bass boom. Fittingly, ‘Escarpment’ features feedback and intermittent noise that sounds like crashing waves. It’s an odd but interesting record with a very ‘cult’-ish sound that points strongly towards a powerful
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