I know I go on ad nauseum about Sacred Bones and the great releases they put out - and how sleek is their cover art! - but I cannot help it, they really are in their own realm, and I love it.
But The Men's Leave Home album is one that I knew a bit about before it was announced that SB were going to drop it. Mainly through my friend Si, who gave me Immaculada and Dead Air Sessions to chew on as a goodbye gift when I left London at the beginning of the year. To say I was impressed is an understatement. Now that this is their first "major" release, a lot more eyes will be turned on to the Brooklyn freak droners, which will then melt Raiders Of The Lost Ark style. For listening to The Men for the first time is like discovering the Ark of the Covenant - pure euphoria and ecstasy, before the power within rips your face off.
'If You Leave' adds to the deception, the opener seemingly a dreamy chillwave number before it dissolves into a psych ramble. Then 'Lotus' hits, and oh my God, strap in, because as Boris as this sounds, there is something slightly rusty and warped around the edges that releases endorphins and bleeding noses simultaneously. Its pretty ruthless from here on out - 'Think' is scary, offensive, and riotously awesome; 'L.A.D.O.C.H.' a cruel drone track that takes you by the neck, thrusts you into the dark and leaves you there to rot; 'Bataille' even more Boris-like in its texture... But this isn't generic, or redundant, in any sense of the words.
Leave Home kills, putrefies the remains, and leaves without so much as an acknowledgement to the atrocities that have just taken place, other than a promise to do it better next time. Jesus.
Leave Home can be bought here.The Men - Lotus
The Men - Bataille
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