It’s been over four years since …(something) ruined unleashed their debut EP, bearing the utilitarian self-explanatory title of EP.
Absent from the live circuit, one may be forgiven for thinking that that was it. But no.
Seemingly out of nowhere, today sees the arrival of a new release, a AA-sided single, containing two slabs of truly brutal anti-corporate, antagonistic, antisocial, annihilative noise.
Prepare to be ruined.
AA
Roulette Records – 25th October 2024
Christopher Nosnibor
As the album’s title suggests, this is a political record. Then again, the single ‘Cancelled’, released a few months back as a lead-up, certainly gave enough of a hint that this was going to be a rage against contemporary society, and the themes of the social media ‘shitshow shower’ and the culture wars and flame-throwing, division and disinformation that has taken over so much of the Internet – a space where we seems spend more time living virtual lives than we do on real life – dominate the lyrics.
The opening lines of ‘What a Way’ neatly encapsulate the band’s angle:
He’s a little nazi with a pop-gun,
Spilling all of his hate onto the forum,
Overcompensating for the fact that,
It’s lonely life
And so it is that these seven sharp cuts (plus a radio edit of ‘Cancelled’) really pick apart just what it is about modern life that s so rubbish. That’s perhaps rather flippant, not to mention reductive of what Let Them Eat Cake is about. It explores numerous aspects of how the world on-line has eroded so much in culture, and how it’s riven with contradictions. On the one hand, the interconnected world of the ‘global village’ Marshall McLuhan first wrote of in Understanding the Media in 1964 has truly come to pass. The world is switched on and connected 24/7, and it’s possible to conduct conversations and business with the other side of the world in real time. News is instantaneous and everywhere. All music – well, hypothetically, and moreover perhaps depending on your tastes – and media are there, instantly, and for free. But on the other hand, as much as there’s a sense of sameness and conformity – same music, same news, same memes, same opinions – and an ever-blander homogeneity, the inhabitants of the global village hate one another’s guts and seem to even derive pleasure from rage, throwing bricks through their neighbours’ windows, keying their cars and burning their houses.
Everyone is shouting louder than the next, ‘look at me, look at me!’ while posting the same generic shit, the same Instagrammable coffee and cake (let them eat it, sure, diabetes is a small price to pay for millions of followers and true ‘influencer’ status, right?), and what’s more there’s simply too much of it. Anxiety, depression, and therapy have become normalised topics as people spill their guts into the world (and the subject of ‘Come Together’), and while yes, it’s good that they’re no longer taboo or shameful, what’s not good is that we’re in this position where these are everyday realities for so many.
Let Them Eat Cake is a snapshot and a critique of all of this.
‘Cancelled’ certainly gets the album off to a fiery, riff-driven start, but it soon becomes clear that LiVES have some considerable capacity for stylistic range. Of course they do: to rail about cultural sameness while doing the same thing on every song would be hypocritical.
The title track has more of a 90s indie vibe, and even goes a bit Manics, a bit Mansun, and a little bit glammy, and ‘Come Together’ has more of an indie vibe, too, but also a theatricality which calls to mind The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, but then ‘What a Way’ cranks up the guitars and hits like a punch in the guts. ‘Already Dead’ and ‘Is This What You Want?’ bring a big stoner-meets Led Zep rock swagger, which contrasts again with the country twang of ‘Hope and Freedom’.
The span of styles makes for an album that never falls to formula or gets predictable, but the lyrical focus ensure it retains that vital cohesion. What really comes across through every song is that this is an album from the heart, born of frustration, disappointment, despondency, irritation, antagonism, that whole gamut of emotions stirred by that feeling of inflammation that everything is so very, very wrong. For all that frustration, disappointment, despondency, irritation, antagonism, Let Them Eat Cake is an album packed with passion, not to mention some corking tunes.
AA
AA
Criminal Records – 28th October 2022
Christopher Nosnibor
Having released the No Guts All the Glory EP in November last year, just seven months after their second LP, False Company, Weekend Recovery have already been making announcements about album number three, to be named Esoteric. We’ll have to wait and see if it lives up to its titles promise of obscure knowledge and rare wisdom, but lead single ‘Chemtrails’ has already garnered some advance radio play and some kudos from DJs in the process.
First, it’s a snappy tune with a nagging guitar and an airy vocal hook and a load of their now trademark woo-oohs, so it’s radio-friendly, but more than that, this song packs a lot onto two minutes and eighteen seconds. Stylistically, it’s a poppy punky hybrid that’s equal parts X-Ray Spex and Shampoo. Then there’s the fact that Lori shifts into a spoken delivery for the verses: it’s not rappy, but it’s rhythmic, and puts the lyrics to the fore.
Lyrically, it’s interesting, in that it’s wide-ranging in its coverage. Now, it’s hard to pinpoint precisely when the ‘chemtrails’ debate began to really get traction, or why, other than ‘The Internet’ regarding the latter, but it starts out with the protagonist articulating mental confusion with the endless barrage of fake news and waves sending her insane, ‘chemtrails’ in her head and the endless talking, before swinging round to take what for some may seem an unexpected swipe at one of the particular strains of feminism that’s become popular among female-fronted circuit peers as she says ‘See, what you wanna do is stop being so right on / Telling girls to come forward, and stand where they belong / You jump into the crowd and shout and dance around.’ It shouldn’t be in any way divisive to point out that inverting the behaviours of patriarchal society by means of ‘positive discrimination’ is not the route to equality, but it’ll be interesting to see how this pans out, but it there needs to be the kind of discussion Weekend Recovery seem to be inviting here.
Sonically, it’s got more separation, and is less ‘wall of fuzz’ than the last album and EP, which is perhaps another factor in its radio appeal, although the drums are pretty dense and thick, a far cry from the trebly crack of the snares on so many commercial pop songs.
It’s a strong offering that has more depth than is first apparent – and that’s entirely the point: ‘Chemtrails’ is a song about questioning conformity. Because pop doesn’t have to be bland or vacant.
Photo by Jess Johnson
Electro-pop artist EVA X has just unveiled the new video for her single, "Machine." The video was directed, shot and edited by Erik Gustafson (GRENDEL / ADORATION DESTROYED).
About the song: "Machine" is the first look at EVA X’s upcoming album, I Dream Of A Reality. EVA X has the following to say about the song and its story: "I have a complicated relationship with my body. I do love it, but sometimes I wish it was different. I wrote "Machine" in a vulnerable spot, when I’d have given anything to feel beautiful like other women on social media. Chasing that aesthetic with injections and makeup was powerful, but also scary – I could create the face and body I wanted, but what would happen when it wore off? I took all of these tangled feelings and poured them into "Machine". When I brought the demo to my co-producers, Shane and Adam immediately jumped on it, bringing it to life with a frenetic energy that captured perfectly how alluring and isolating that illusion can be. In the music video, I wanted to explore what being beautiful in the alternative community looks and feels like, and how far we go for aesthetics. I taught myself choreography to capture the movement I wanted. Erik and I designed a video that captured both the sexiness I wanted and the reality of cutting and injecting ourselves for it."
Watch the video here:
AA
23rd April 2021
Christopher Nosnibor
They may be in the midst of a lineup change and lacking a guitarist and drummer, but while live activity isn’t an option, London-based Emergency are still in aa position to raise their profile with the release of single ‘Another Hit’, a swipe at social media and its content creators, while also turning the lens inwards and reflecting on the role of the consumer and the element of hypocrisy that’s inherent within that.
It’s relatable, to the extent that most of us do it, and I’ll confess my guilt also: I’ve spent what feel like an eternity bitching about Instagram being the platform for vain hipsters before finally relenting and setting up and account ostensibly because, y’know, maximum exposure and all, but I feel like a sell-out and a hypocrite, but it’s just the way of the world, right? Like being absolutely sick to death of everyone’s pictures of their pets and their meals, so electing to do the same, only ‘ironically’ – right? Fuck it. Postmodernism is dead, irony is dead. Thankfully, killer tunes played with energy never die, and ‘Another Hit’ is tight, punchy, zesty, and a shade acerbic, packing some sharp critique and packaged into some astute guitar-driven post-punk influenced indie, with a dash of surf rock and a hint of Franz Ferdinand in the mix.
It’s choppy, dynamic, and has one of those buzzing riffs that drills into your head on the very first listen. Absolute killer.
AA
Aural Aggravation 