What does it sound like?:
During last night’s Tim’s Twitter Listening Party for Kompromat, the host asked for four-word reviews of the album. One of the tweeters came back with ‘Electronic Gothic Social Commentary’, which just about sums things up. The country’s most criminally overlooked band (copyright: me) have a history of making records that simultaneously surf the zeitgeist while at the same time maintaining a timeless quality. Their last album, The Shallows, found them exploring the interface of humanity and technology. On Kompromat (the word meaning compromising material used for blackmail and / or political ends), they let loose on a post-truth world of Brexit, Trump, Assange et al. Thankfully it’s not nearly as on-the-nose as I’ve made it sound, but it’s still very much an album of its tumultuous time.
Broadly speaking the music is electronicky post-rock, the epic sweep of past albums replaced by a claustrophobic, paranoid feel. Brian Eno said of Iggy’s The Idiot that the production is like being encased in concrete. On Kompromat the feel is that of the dimly lit interrogation room. Meanwhile, lyricist David Martin has a habit of stringing together aphorisms in a way that lends them an intimate quality, but his delivery, especially on this album, has an insinuating, almost threatening feel, as though he’s just sidled up to the protagonist of a conspiracy thriller in a hotel bar. ‘I am the President. I am the President,’ he sings on the opener, A Steady Hand. ‘I am the overfed, bigoted, son of an immigrant.’ That’s all very well, but in actual fact, he sounds like an agent of the deep state, and you should be very afraid.
What does it all *mean*?
It means another great addition to ILT’s small but perfectly formed discography, and easily my album of the year so far.
Goes well with…
… the feeling that you are being watched.
Release Date:
Out now!
Might suit people who like…
The Parallax View, All The President’s Men
Sounds interesting. I’ve enjoyed their previous albums without actually buying any…
I meant to post on this thread before it left the front page, but events…
I listened to it twice early this morning when I was woken up “with the full moon in my eyes” – kind of appropriate as it asks “how do you sleep at night?” in track 2. Fading in and out of drowsiness was quite a good way to let the sounds wash over me and let the mood of the album sink into my head.
A goth band from Leeds, a lead singer with a baritone voice spouting aphorisms over two guitars and a prominent bass? Sounds familiar and sounds like it will fill a much-needed FALAA gap. Except the singer is more Mallinder than Eldritch in deadpan vocal style (and lyrical theme). The drumming is more vigorous Stephen Morris than metronomic Dr Avalanche, and the album cover has definite echoes of the pulsar waves of Unknown Pleasures (it looks like a monochrome version of the image you get when scanning your hard drive to see what’s filling up the memory).
I’m still far from Tigging the 6 listens box yet, but I’m getting a good sense of the style of the band (never heard (of) them before). Dense ideas pepper the lyrics with a lot of thought gone into the choice of juxtaposing many well-used phrases to make you think again about what they mean. Something I like Laurie Anderson for doing – taking over-used, under-considered phrases and making you hear them again with fresh ears. ‘The truth is a dog, and the cheque’s in the post’ was an early winner. I’ve put the track listing below to remind me, but it’s only 1, 2, 4, 5, 6 and above all 8 that have stuck out in some way from the overall impression so far. I think PRISM could be my favourite, and I like the Cocteau-style guitar chords in the Trump-attacking Man of Conviction. ‘The Truth’, with its rattling off of truth-related phrases is particularly dense with meaning and allusion, flipping between the veracity of the statement and what Truth itself is.
A lot more to discover yet, and I can imagine myself quoting the lyrics to myself, (like I still do from the Sisters first album) when their relevance and playful subversion of cliche reveals new nuance in as yet unthought-through contexts.
Thanks for posting the review, @Leicester-Bangs!
Tracks:
1. A Steady Hand
2. Desire Is A Mess
3. Dig In
4. PRISM
5. Patience Is A Virtue
6. Man of Conviction
7. New Geography
8. The Truth
9. Eyes to the Left (ft. Anika)
https://youtu.be/2yQ6s4U_OyM
I hadn’t thought of it like that but Leeds breeds this sort of band, doesn’t it? I’m thinking also of the mighty Cassandra Complex.
Your marvellous review made me think of this track from one of my favourite albums:
https://youtu.be/8m1lyYg6LPA