Artist: The Birthday Party
Album: Junk Yard
Genre: Death-Rock, Post-Punk, Gothic-Rock
Personnel: Nick Cave, Mick Harvey, Phill Calvert, Tracy Pew, Rowland S. Howard
"The Birthday Party", formerly know as "The Boys next Door", released their "Hee Haw" EP in 1979. It was their third release, after two previous singles, and hit the market coinciding with their debut album "Door, Door", that same year. The music of "The Birthday Party" served up an intense trip. Lead vocalist, Nick Cave, sang in demonic fashion and this became an integral element of the band's abrasive music.
"Hee-Haw" saw a move from a traditional punk sound to further reaching pastures. Cave's vocal work on this album is truly amazing, even if the style is not your cup of tea. A lot of vibrato, octave leaps and squealing is involved in Cave's singing - this lends to quite a thrilling sound, one that might be apt in a film such as "Saw". Through the anarchy, there is structure. You can hear that they've worked all of this out and many complexities can be found on this album. It's not, simply, a melee of noise. That said, it's very difficult for me to determine what the songs' lyrics are so that point of view has to, sadly, be disregarded.
Musically, the organised chaos continues. Guitar playing from either Howard or Harvey (not sure who exactly), is played in a fashion so as to mirror Cave's shrieks. This is particularly evident on the opening track, "A Catholic Skin". The music doesn't flow. There is plenty of staccato movement and this is hard to adjust to. Dramatic changes in mood and levels of tension mean that you are best to be sitting down and listening to this music with no agenda. It's not suitable as background music while studying or for blasting around town on a bike. Consistent motion is lacking.
Despite this, there are some familiar patches to be found on the EP. "Faint Heart" incorporates conventional punk sounds which tie the song together. That's not to say any dynamics are lost - as the density falls away, we get a low-key section, built-up to a crescendo of angry drumming and some superb bass work by Calvert and Pew respectively. Melodically, it's hard to make sense of the details. The note progressions are extremely far-reaching and, possibly, based on achieving as discordant a sound as suitable (that's fairly discordant then!). It's hard to judge it from a theoretical perspective.
"The Birthday Party" is not a band I would listen to regularly but I can wholly respect their "caution to the wind" approach. Anxiety, turmoil and anger is what they brew up and, I suppose, they portray an image of a bunch of bullies making mince-meat of a house party.
On the EP, there are some kicking sections. I just wish they could string them together with less bedlam.
Song of the album: Faint Heart
No comments:
Post a Comment