Violens
Amoral
Static Recital
As a music critic and most importantly as a music fan, I’m anxiously trying to discover new music, and generally there are a couple of ways I find out about new bands and new sounds – sometimes through some serendipitous discovery, other times I hear friends and associates talking about a particular band; and I’ll also check out some of the blogs and alternative weeklies to see what others are writing about and who they’ve discovered. In the case of Violens, a close friend of mine had been talking about them for the past couple of months, after seeing them open for someone at the Bowery Ballroom. And since Jorge Elbrecht, a former member of the avant garde multimedia collective Lansing-Dreiden formed Violens back in 2008, they’ve been making some noise in both the blogosphere and among critics – with an increasing amount of buzz over the last month or two, in anticipation of their debut full-length record, Amoral.
Certainly, the several virtual spins through my beaten-up and trusty iPod, I could hear what the buzz was all about – Violens’ work is full of shimmering guitars played with reverb and delay pedal, unexpectedly funky bass, electronic bleeps, boops and other noises in some of the songs and vocals sung with a plaintive, almost too earnest and swooning falsetto. It’s shoegazer rock that manages to be danceable at parts. Elbrecht’s voice sounds awfully familiar – sort of like New Order’s Bernard Hook, sort of like XTC’s Andy Partridge and someone else I can’t quite put my finger on. At times, the songs show a deft movement between varying sections – verse, chorus and verse can be difficult to discern but the hooks are unmistakable and fucking catchy. I’ve had random parts of songs in my head for the past two weeks. Somehow, I was reminded of several different bands while playing this album. “It Couldn’t Be Perceived” and “Until It’s Unlit” sound a lot like early-to-mid 80s New Order filtered a bit through Cut Copy’s In Ghost Colours album (a recent favorite of mine that I’ve been playing a lot, actually). The playfully upbeat and jazzy bass chord opening of “The Dawn of Your Happiness is Rising,” along with the slick chorus reminded me a lot of the unappreciated of XTC – think of songs like “Senses Working Overtime” or “Mayor Simpleton” which are unforgettable pop songs once you hear them.
“Violent Sensation Descend” and “Could You Stand to Know,” with their fuzzy psychedelica sound almost as though they could have been released in 1966 or in 1983. Much like the rest of the songs on this album when they’re quiet they can be quiet such as “Trance Like Turn,” for example – but when they’re loud, they’re towering and yet tightly controlled such as on “Amoral.” Repeated listens reveal some little sonic nugget you may not have noticed. For their first full length album, Violens is on that tightrope between the familiar and the new, and hearing a band on the verge of something incredibly different is quite exciting.
Release Date: November 2, 2010
Track Listing
1. The Dawn of Your Happiness Is Rising
2. Full Collision
3. Acid Reign
4. Are You Still in the Illusion
5. It Couldn’t Be Perceived
6. Until It’s Unlit
7. Violent Sensation Descends
8. Could You Stand To Know?
9. Trance Like Turn
10. Amoral
11. Another Strike Restrained
12. Generational Loss
