Can we say Sonic Youth? There’s more than a hint of the art rockers about North American War.
Noise melds with spoken word vocals, combining to create a narrative that sounds like a fusion of progressive with punk.
‘Ivory And’ smartly uses its lyrical pull – stopping at the ‘and’ of its title – to constantly tease the audience, who keep wondering what comes next.
It’s noisy and sometimes self indulgent, but it never pushes it far enough to alienate the listener.
On the flip side, ‘Germaniums On A Spit’ starts out as a cuter, more delicate ballad before taking the same sort of direction that its predecessor did.
It’s seven minutes of excellence – layered vocals, foreign languages, increasingly becoming faster, louder and more complex – before it then switches back to the softness that greeted us at the start.
In no small way, it is the better track and a fitting conclusion to a great little release.
Words: Matthew Slater
