Oh god dammit! I remember seeing this video of Divorce playing under a bridge in Glasgow and I was sold immediately, the crazy pure racket created by these 4 is unbelievable. The guitar noises that are created that aren't necessarily melodic, but completely awkward screeches and bursts combined with an odd rhythm drum section and of course Jennie Fulk losing it on vocals...all underneath a bridge. That's really perfect, reckless abandon and damaged noise put together with this energy in an abandoned public space. It's in line with the Coathangers, erase errata, lightning bolt and nu sensae, bordering on not even music, but a performance of music's possibilities...or something.
The A-Side, "Wet Bandit" starts off with Andy Browns cowbell and rimshot snare weirdo timing, and explosive bursts of scuzzy guitar delivered in pure rhythm, the actual melody is an afterthought, who tunes their guitar? Jennie has an equally internal vocal timing that's almost following the crash cymbal, jamming in verse after verse of semi-coherent lyrics. Fighting hard and matching this dense noise, she's changing it up right along with this manic instrumentation. Later, there's a magical call and response of the drums and an almost glitchy electronic distortion, the harmonics of blue box pedal back and forth. It's one new anti-rhythm after another. The silence when it's over is deafening.
B-Side's "Dildine" has that guitar and bass in staccato meltdown again against the fills from Andy, they truly appreciate noise, you can hear this attention to dissonance and those overlooked sounds that when put together like this have their own unique logic. Jennie is tearing through the lyric with energy that doesn't ever just get screamy, just caught up in this hail of sound, the individual phrases, yet another rhythm to contend with. They finally give in to complete noise breakdown in measured perfectly crafted punches, to build it back from scratch, in comes that off timing and gated screech of distortion. Divorce is in control the whole time, granted it's like watching sausage being made, it's messy and can be downright ugly, and not just anyone can do it. It takes a lot of secret ingredients to turn that mess of remnants into something damn good. Divorce please come to NYC.
They have an extensive blog, documenting insane tours, roundabouts and putting weird things on their faces, all of this is done under the pretense of playing some pretty great noise besides.
Get a taste of these tracks from their bandcamp page and order this direct from Gravy Records, or Shellshock either way, your getting this one airmail, but noise innovation is never easy.
Don't forget about their previous "Love Attack" single now available locally from Deathbombarc distro either.
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