It begins with hectic, clattering drumming, a rhythm almost identical to 'Ice Age' by Joy Division, but before the first minute's out, all thoughts of Joy Division have been blown away in a haywire conglomeration of myriad styles and forms, changes in tempo and instrumentation. It's like someone skipping through a CD, a snippet of one song, a brief burst of the next. It's bewildering, but fascinating.
The second track, the amusingly-titled 'Sexy Picnic' is a little more coherent, and sounds like only one - or maybe two - songs in one, rather than an entire album compressed into two and a half minutes. Combining a slow folk fiddle over a tetchy new-wave bassline and solid rhythm, it's like no picnic I've ever been on, sexy or otherwise. Did anyone remember the scotch eggs?
The choppy new-wave sound is again in evidence on their cover on Kraftwek's 'Neon Lights,' which comes on somewhere between Wire and Gang of Four, and is pretty darn great, not least of all because it's really well executed. Oddly, it's the next track, 'Shoes' that sounds more like Kraftwerk, but with the addition of some solid drumming. Lyrically, it's an exercise in the bizarre. I might be mishearing, but the refrain sounds for all the world like 'I can't watch your ass / 'cause I find your shoes so ugly'. Genius!
|
With this release, LoAF have once again demonstrated their knack for discovering the unusual: Nickel Pressing are wonderfully quirky, extremely distinctive and highly original, and, importantly, entertaining.
Nickel Pressing on Myspace
|
