The Answer Is In The Beat

His Electro Blue Voice: Ruthless Sperm (Sub Pop, 2013)

August 9, 2013 at 10:58 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment

Whoa! Somehow I wasn’t expecting this to be as relentless and aggressive and noisy, yet accessible, as it is. Maybe the name made me think it was going to be synth-pop or something. Instead, it’s closer to the kind of noisy alt-rock Sub Pop made its name releasing, except this has a little bit of a goth/death-rock thing to it. Killing Joke is definitely a big reference point here. Opener “Death Climb” is like a less electronic version of a Wolf Eyes fist-banger, and “Spit Dirt” is a long repetitive Kraut-rocky thing, but it’s so tense and paranoid, especially if you read the lyric sheet. My god, these lyrics are frustrated and troubled and bleak. Sometimes it truly comes through in the music, but other times it’s somehow a bit more dulled down, especially on the longer tracks, I think they get more to the point with the shorter ones. “Sea Bug” definitely has a big anthemic ’80s college rock quality to it, reminding me of Husker Du quite a bit, with a big pounding rhythm, wall-of-sound guitars and a great guitar melody repeating and building throughout the second half of the song, plus heavily (Italian) accented vocals. “Tumor” is a short, pounding, almost industrial blast, with shouted vocals (pretty shocking, FCC-unsafe lyrics) and a feedback breakdown in the middle, and some squiggly acid synth ending the song. “The Path” is deceptively uptempo and melodic, disguising more terrifying (and also FCC-unfriendly) lyrics. “Born/Tired” almost sounds like it could be a Pixies song, but instead of the loud intro/quiet verse/loud chorus/etc. formula, it starts with a more melodic part and shouted lyrics, barrels on with the same repetitive rhythm and cools down, starting with softer, almost whispered vocals, and then instrumental guitar and piano soloing. “Red Earth” ends the album on this more calmed-down mode, with deceptively cool/clean-sounding guitars, keyboards and drums, but quite creepy (and, again, FCC-unsafe) lyrics. Also it fades out at about 5:45, is silent for about 15 seconds, and then the last minute is slitherning keyboards and a spooky voice that almost sounds like it’s being choked.