THE
STRIGGLES - expressionism
(CD/LP,
noise appeals)
On the press fotograf the four guys in the band sit
around a breakfast table of half eaten eggs, instant cacao and yesterday’s
newspapers in their coats and act all as if the camera wasn’t there even
though all four of them are looking straight into the lense. And despite all
of these contradictions, I believe it is easy to talk to them for the length
of a beer about common denominators from their musical socialisation, noise
rock trivia and subculture tidbits, which positively includes a label that
spells noise in the back in big letters or bands that Duane Dennison has
been in or still is. Then they will strike the stage and burn the hall down,
leave people scarred and smiling happily with the beer in their hands slowly
turning stale as the light dims.
Thankfully, the hype around bands with a “the” in
front of their name has died down and so it is easy to call them to the fore
and spell it out loud that “expressionism” is the musical equivalent of
something fueled with gasoline that might blow up at any minute, still you
like to tinker with it. And then it goes ka-boom! Nothing for the kids, this
is grown up noise rock. Thank you.
The sound of The Striggles is reduced to the max,
basic, explosive noise rock. Sometimes they try go into the mechanic animal
routine of bass/drum/guitar synchronisation that Shellac (and AC/DC, just to
be complete) are masters in. Then they do that kind of twisted, distorted
freak blues abomination that made Jesus Lizard into the cult idols of
testosterone noise blues. Then they go for freak award and skip the concept
of structure in favor of something more obscure and roundabout. They stretch
in so many directions at once with rolling bass lines and driving drums
mixed with screeching and screaming guitars, it makes me think of a
workbench stacked with the nicest implements and tools, from carbon power
drills to circle saws. The things you could do with that? The damage you
could inflict? The creativity that could be born from destruction? The
volume of the machines and the power of the loudness of the noise –
sometimes I think the amplifier in itself was the most important musical
invention of the 20th century.
Unfortunately, The Striggles sometimes shy away one
step from the ultimate extremity that would make “expressionism” a truly
outstanding album. Which is an unfair thing to say when actually in
comparison to what is being released currently in Austria this is a
wonderfully exciting album filled with gasoline drenched noise rock songs.
Believe it or not, I have more than a handful of favorite albums that you
may say the exact same thing about. And anyway, they make up their 97,5 % in
extremism in versatility and originality. And by using Zippy as a cover
model, which is another late Eighties cultural micro-distinction you might
not even remember if you were interested in comics back then.
As I hinted at, these four guys know exactly what they
are doing. Because they are grown up, mature noise rockers with enough
experience in a slew of different bands (amongst them Fetish 69, Melville and
others), musical memories of their own and strange ones, as well as a
feeling for how to fuse weirdness with volume. The album has the prfect
factors to listen to it twice in a row, not only because it does what it has
to do in somewhat below fourty minutes. Mostly because it is not boring. And
because the last song on here “Adoration” is also one of the best ones.
The scorchers and faster songs are up front and the end. The longer you
listen to it, the more it becomes recitative and experimental. And then
explosive again. Even if that means rhyming the following intro “Oh fuck /
oh shit / Oh Suzy / Komm mit.” and then before breaking into more great
noise rock delivering some more rhymes between drunken teenage fun and
modern cultural commentary on the state of things to come.
