ACCELERA DECK – a landslide of stars

(CD, Scarcelight)

When Chris Jeely promised a surprise for the new release by Accelera Deck, he wasn’t lying or exaggerating. Even to die-hard fans, who have come to like and somehow expect 3CDR-live-sets of electronic improvisation / noise (live volume 1-3) alongside structural drones ranging from shoegazing pristineness (on the “sunstrings EP”) to full power walls of noise (also on the “sunstrings EP”) and more releases along those lines, this concept-piece of organically grown metal / indierock-hybrids will present some task to swallow. If you keep one thing in mind, the task will be easy: this record rocks and it does rock in the most basic sense of the word. The Jack Black / School of Rock kind of rock. The sweaty, guitar pounding, amplified, stageantics kind of rock.

Right in the opening track “sexx” (what a speaking title for a rock record) the duo if Chris Jeely on guitars, computers and vocals (!) and Zach Evans on drums form a dense formula of 4/4-drums with pounding guitars, a truckload of special effects and singing through distortion effects. Yes, real singing, with great melodies and everything. “Sexx” pounds along sturdily, heavily and with a dynamite groove that lies somewhere between the stubborness of death metal rhythms, the forlorn stoner rock explorations of Queens of the Stone Age and the melancholy drenched in guitar noise of Dinosaur Jr. The title track next up seems to be the central axis this formula revolves around within the record. It feels like someone mixed shoegazing britpop with heavy metal.

And in various ways the two keep to this formula for the rest of the record, shifting around the bit parts, from the speed to the atmosphere and adding various layers of computerized noise here and there, some noise parts to close or open up songs. But right through it is mostly a sturdy, straight drum beat – Evans doesn’t seem to be too keen on showing off on his kit, he is more a hyperactive Charlie Watts than Keith Moon on this recording – with layers of guitar riffs on top and a nice melody for the vocals to close it down. What a great record.

Evans and Jeely manage to transform the burning intensity of rockmusic into concrete auditive terms. Every track on “landslide of stars” bristles and burns with audacity and acuteness, not just the aptly named “fire sermon”. The longer the records goes onwards from “landslide of stars”, the more the parts of computer noise are brought into the front of the mix, but not so much as singular tracks or parts, but more like nods to the past. And in a paralell movement the more looseness and relaxation the two allow themselves, untill they reach realms of indierock rather than metal. But they’ll soon wrap it up again. On “7”, which is track number six on the record to give you some idea of the humour behind Jeely, he proves that he knows how to construct a basic noise rock bass riff. But what you gotta tell me is, how will they tour this stuff? Rehearsing a set of stringplayers plus a computer noise specialist won’t be so easy I think. Maybe this is the opening act to the forming of the first freerock super group, who knows.