Music Is My Weapon
Caesar had his legions, Napoleon had his rifles, we have our music.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006
Quick reviews: Delta 5 and Plastic Constellations.
Two quick reviews: new records by Delta 5 and Plastic Constellations. I enjoyed them so I thought I would share their music with the world.
First, Delta 5's Singles & Sessions. As the sound of British new wave began to brighten the industrial North during the late 1970s, the city of Leeds earned a reputation as a salient point of response to the country's chronic economic recession. Tightly knit groups such as Gang of Four, the Mekons, and Delta 5 rose out of the realms of Leeds' universities and provided a social platform for its particularly politicized students. Ros Allen and Bethan Peters, both on bass and vocals, originally formed Delta 5 because they "felt left out" of the city's burgeoning music scene, although this apparent caprice quickly developed into reality with the addition of deadpan vocalist Julz Sale, guitarist Alan Riggs, and one-time Gang of Four drummer Kelvin Knight.
The purpose of Singles & Sessions is to document Delta 5's short existence in a coherent format, since most of their early vinyl is out of print. But the strength and vitality of this collection of songs is also a point of frustration. Had this been released as the group's album in 1981, instead of the over produced and comparatively weak See The Whirl?, Delta 5 would have created a debut as impressive and culturally resonant as Entertainment!. As it is however, this excellent compilation has given new life to a brief, great band almost lost within the fug of post-punk's prolific heyday.
Plastic Constellations' Crusades. I thought I needed a q-tip when I first heard Crusades' new record, as it sounded muddy. Bad rip? Speakers fucking with me? Nah. The perennially ahead-of-the-curve Plastic Constellations' third album is just their first on a cushy budget, so it's easy to confuse the beefy high-fidelity for some Frenchkiss engineer's mistake. Anyone who listened carefully to Mazatlan and Let's War-- living wage gigs for minor-league labels-- caught making-do vibrations; between guitars chugged thin, drums played loud but hit weak, parts got buried or stood out bull's-eye obvious. But here the band made like architects and turned its limitations into resources, fattening with volume and part-doubling in lieu of reverb and filters. Their effort amounts to a convincing facsimile of a high school punk show for the ages.
Rarely do albums come this taut anymore: 35 minutes, no acoustic pussyfooting or tortoise-tempo sensitive moments. Yes, Crusades is a consistent album, staggeringly so. Ha, no see that's not an inherently good thing! I'll shy from "heard it once, heard it all" derision, but Crusades corrects some of Mazatlan's most compelling failings, like its done-on-the-cheap warmth or its penchant for sloppy genre-hopping. Instead we get expertness in place of exuberance, a trade off even green-faced basement-rehearsing post-punk wunderkinds must make eventually. So how to subsume the 20-something set without estranging the kids? Learn some dynamics I guess.
First, Delta 5's Singles & Sessions. As the sound of British new wave began to brighten the industrial North during the late 1970s, the city of Leeds earned a reputation as a salient point of response to the country's chronic economic recession. Tightly knit groups such as Gang of Four, the Mekons, and Delta 5 rose out of the realms of Leeds' universities and provided a social platform for its particularly politicized students. Ros Allen and Bethan Peters, both on bass and vocals, originally formed Delta 5 because they "felt left out" of the city's burgeoning music scene, although this apparent caprice quickly developed into reality with the addition of deadpan vocalist Julz Sale, guitarist Alan Riggs, and one-time Gang of Four drummer Kelvin Knight.The purpose of Singles & Sessions is to document Delta 5's short existence in a coherent format, since most of their early vinyl is out of print. But the strength and vitality of this collection of songs is also a point of frustration. Had this been released as the group's album in 1981, instead of the over produced and comparatively weak See The Whirl?, Delta 5 would have created a debut as impressive and culturally resonant as Entertainment!. As it is however, this excellent compilation has given new life to a brief, great band almost lost within the fug of post-punk's prolific heyday.
Plastic Constellations' Crusades. I thought I needed a q-tip when I first heard Crusades' new record, as it sounded muddy. Bad rip? Speakers fucking with me? Nah. The perennially ahead-of-the-curve Plastic Constellations' third album is just their first on a cushy budget, so it's easy to confuse the beefy high-fidelity for some Frenchkiss engineer's mistake. Anyone who listened carefully to Mazatlan and Let's War-- living wage gigs for minor-league labels-- caught making-do vibrations; between guitars chugged thin, drums played loud but hit weak, parts got buried or stood out bull's-eye obvious. But here the band made like architects and turned its limitations into resources, fattening with volume and part-doubling in lieu of reverb and filters. Their effort amounts to a convincing facsimile of a high school punk show for the ages.Rarely do albums come this taut anymore: 35 minutes, no acoustic pussyfooting or tortoise-tempo sensitive moments. Yes, Crusades is a consistent album, staggeringly so. Ha, no see that's not an inherently good thing! I'll shy from "heard it once, heard it all" derision, but Crusades corrects some of Mazatlan's most compelling failings, like its done-on-the-cheap warmth or its penchant for sloppy genre-hopping. Instead we get expertness in place of exuberance, a trade off even green-faced basement-rehearsing post-punk wunderkinds must make eventually. So how to subsume the 20-something set without estranging the kids? Learn some dynamics I guess.