DISCO INFERNO

I feel like I've heard this record so many times I forget just how insane it really is. But every so often, I stop and realize: Wait, how are they making these sounds? Your first listen is probably going to be full of moments like this. It's one of those records, one of those all-timers that completely turns all traditional ideas about music on their head. Every moment on this album is an absolutely dense whirlwind of samples and natural noises. I wonder how many obscure R&B B-sides made their way into this absolute chaos, aside from the sample in Starbound. The first side is one of the most brutal experiences you can have in music. It sounds like a universe being randomly rearranged onto itself to where everything is a half-static mess of broken, grotesque noise. The only respite you get is the brief more serene segments in opener In Sharky Water, even though in the context of the song the water noises still make you feel in danger before the guitar attack kicks in. But it really comes to a head on A Crash at Every Speed. It's a spooky bassline, a voice, and nothing else even comes close to being recognizable. Just complete noise shred for the entire song, layers and layers of the natural chaos of the world being piled on top of itself. Oh yeah, I should mention there was almost no studio trickery on this album. The second side is much more psychedelic folk influenced. No less nihilistic, but relatively calmer after the insanity. Hazy natural psychedelia, like a musique concrete fever dream, still whirls around you, but it's more serene. Whole Wide World Ahead is gorgeously dark, a gentle ballad about how much the world is going to hell, and possibly the most folksy track. Footprints in Snow... indescribable. I'm not even going to try. After Footprints, it fades into dialogue of Disco Inferno arguing with their landlord. It feels kind of strange, but it's really one of those incredible album enders, like gently waking up from a dream and returning to reality with a sense of calm. If you've ever heard the end of Caroline, No by the Beach Boys you probably know what I'm talking about.

Like I said, this is one of those albums, one that nobody has even come close to replicating. Even Disco Inferno never made a product this extreme in the rest of their discography, despite the other great sampledelic post-rock. Some records I give fives on this site make me second guess my rating, like maybe it's a 4 but very close to a 5, but this one I'm sure of. I give this record the highest recommendation imaginable.

This EP is, much like all of their others, made up of tracks that pretty much have no emotion, with songs that sound like the band is a bit too casual in their approach. Yes they experiment with sound and textures, but once they introduce a sound in one of their songs, it has very little in change through the single track, sort of jangly, and more like a shoegaze sound than anything else. The melodies are pretty much buried in their textured and experimental sound, the singing is very unemotional and casual, and not much seems to stand out.

On this 4 song EP, the best track is "At the End of the Line", but the reason for that is that the band actually explores some nice experimentation to their usual shoegaze texture, and this adds a bit more character to the track. It ends up standing out the most because of this, however, overall, it's still quite a shrug when everything is said and done. Try as I might, I just have a hard time hearing anything that catches my attention, though I totally respect what they are trying to do here. However, it only makes for not only something that isn't commercial, but also creates something that doesn't really create any interest while it is at it. I end up giving this 3 stars because it doesn't really stir any emotions (excitement or disdain) by the time it is all done. I'm neither happy or sad that it is short, and once it is over, your life just continues as before.

For starters what caught my attention, I have to confess, is the fact that it is not stuck in the borders of the quiet repetitive Prog's protocols, which by itself, is highly refreshing. I will try to explain what is going inside this 5 EPs collection.

Kind of a mix between Nick Cave's up front, lo-fi recorded, explosiveness (his both highly refined yet raw Punk 80's music, not his untouchable lyrics of course), this happening here and there, some splashes of David Sylvian's Japan like mode of story telling singing, lots of trashy experimental electronics, trashy guitars, Sigur Ros' early and Cabaret Voltaire's polished "post-Punk" attitude, even "Zappaezques" gentle reminders and yeah, it has its TALK TALK kind of momentums (here and there).

It will show its timing in its music composition, so feel forewarned and be prepared for a joyful and amazingly "un-cliched" trip to those post 80's, less obsessed with what their ancestors craved for.... FAME!

Prog sub-genre wise, its experimental nature and focused carelessness could appeal also to the RiO enthusiasts but its post-80's touch, although perfectly suited, may scare half of them.

A daring array of songs that never cease to offer thrills and intelligent solutions, yet it will show its age more than once, as I have mentioned more than once. Aside from that, a keeper in my selection and the kind that makes you look for more of DISCO INFERNO's other releases.

****4.5 PA STARS.

Released over three years in original format, and first collected by an enterprising internet bootlegger in '99, these fifteen cuts touch a mind boggling myriad of genres and styles and master each and every one as they are subsumed into a eudaimonic whole. I'll just list: post rock, post punk, plunderphonics, electronics, britpop, noise pop, noise rock, acoustica, ambient, IDM, concrete. It was always ethereal, always experimental, always flawless. Nature and urban samples and electronic washes both surrounded and acted as the foundation for the band's exercises in genre busting, with tracks variously spacing out, chugging along like an '80's post punk band on Talk Talk, forming a pop song, or, by the end, just losing themselves in the set dressing. Ian Crause could gently and forlornly speak through the sheets of sound, or sing along when the song called for it. And on top of all that, "The Atheist's Burden" uses the electronics for rhythm, and "It's A Kid's World" drives on the back of pounding drums plundered from you'll-know-where.

This really is something else, with no words for it. Outclassing all comers, both from the genres they took from and from fellow EP wielding experimentalists like The Beta Band and Brainiac, this stands as Disco Inferno's completed magnum opus. And thank goodness that this collection eventually got an official release.