Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Cured Pink on Black Petal Records


Are there no bands coming out of Brooklyn anymore? I used the think you couldn't throw an empty can of PBR without hitting a member of a Brooklyn band. Maybe they just aren't pressing seven inches? Are cassettes the new seven inch? Stupid old blog! Looks like Australia wins again sending in this single from Cured Pink which could be the best kind of single; the conceptual art 7". Andrew McLellan, the ringleader is interested in playing prepared instruments supporting performance pieces and and rigging IED's on television sets triggered by people at his art show while coming up with constructivist tunes with his three piece from Brisbane. It's that minimal Gang of Four inspired skeleton, shoving forward bullying itself into some kind of melody, only here they use instruments that you and I would recognize only occasionally.

"Body Body Body I Need It I Need It I Need It" plods along with a reverb bass line, sounding like an old sci-fi soundtrack with clanking metal pots and pans and the shifty warble and squeal of an old radio with crazy bursts of guitar distortion used as percussion. Maybe a thermemin back there somewhere over thumping kick and bass recorded in a stark, hard basement of piled up cinder blocks. This rambles on with surprising rhythm - a real art brut piece, pounding out a path through whatever natural elements they come across, like an The Sediment Club or a krunky, experimental Cabaret Voltaire (imagine?). I love how it's in a perpetual state of falling apart, barely held together with some sort of vocal off in the distance, possibly unamplified over a huge gong or sheet metal for a cymbal, they're going to keep you guessing at the individual elements. A glass bowl... enormous tin cans? This keeps a free form primitive beat with it's hypnotic effect that you'd have to watch out for with the limited space of a single but all the while sounding really live and that's key to any good junked up punk or experimental stuff, don't sit at home on your four track...find out what this is going to sound like out in the world, not in front of people mind you but out there in a barn or dirty basement. How thees guys interact spontaneously is the main idea of this.

"Amnesia As Answer" sounds like that train ride Tim Robinson took in Jacobs Ladder when he sees those fast head moving demon people. Once that train has left the station we're left with more repetitive regular beat clicks from sticks and verging on feedback muted strums. I think the most impressive thing is that the piled up junk noises are actually very rigidly kept in line for this delivery. Wide delay vocals that seem to get louder the more they echo, if thats even possible, somehow I could see these guys wiring that delay backwards or something. Bizarrely scary but exciting and post everything...these guys don't even seem to have a personality and I mean that in the best way, the only thing you have to go on is this music. I would believe these guys are normal PHD students who hit on this equation that was equal parts unsettling and exciting. Forget the lyric content, this turns into an exercise in self hypnosis. Excellent.

From Black Petal direct or the bands bandcamp page. These geniuses could break up at any moment because they're about to cure cancer or something waaaaay more financially profitable.

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