The schizophrenic tones/drones of Melbourne malcontents Deaf Wish assault us once more on new LP Pain (their first full-length effort on Seattle legends Sub Pop). Their abject adherence to democratic demolition means the ten tracks here remain decidedly chaotic, each member of the band bringing their own sense of warped reality to the melting pot. So we start with the 1-2-3-4 zigzag of ideas: the maladroit menace of 'The Whip'; the breakneck brutality of 'Newness Again'; the sinuous comedown of 'They Know'; and the woozy vertigo and lackadaisical decay of 'Sunset's Fool'. It feels more than a Petri dish of ideas - rather, it's a four headed beast acting in tandem, allowing each synapse to flare and fire, ramping up and damping down where necessary. Then there are mixtures - the throwback punk and frayed fuses of 'Eyes Closed'; the cantankerous, sweat-stained desperation of the title track; the seductive dichotomy of innocence born and lost of 'Sex Witch; the panicked pace masquerading as controlled mayhem of 'On', whirring in its own squalling bathysphere. Then there are the two elongated grinds of 'Dead Air' and 'Calypso' - the former a feedback-drenched fusing of minds melted, a jam expending the last vestiges of sanity, coalescing into a fever pitch, an anarchic aligned mantra; the latter the sardonic aftermath, an inventory of the damage done and the debris left behind, a cathartic yet corrosively defeated fade-out.
In short, brilliant.
Buy Pain here. Deaf Wish are playing a couple shows in Victoria before winging to the US for a run of shows, supported (at least at one gig) by another great band, Coma In Algiers. Hopefully we will see them here in the UK soon too.
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