UKNW SOUNDS : BASS DRUM OF DEATH (USA)
Since the year 2000, musical genres have been flourishing. This is because the sounds and resources have never been so varied and experimental. Now, artists are constantly trying to criticize the sound that goes out to stand up in the face of their fellow countrymen. And just as well! Others are still confined to a sound that is more authentic and less innovative.Unless this observation is mastered, the custom is a slippery slopeand can remind us of the good old days.
Bets made! The heavy and frantic rock of Bass Drum of Deathis the proof. Initially perceived as a vain and amateur style of music, garage rockwas never recognized as an independent music genre and therefore never given a specific name. This group of middle-class suburbanyoungsters were on everyone’s mind. Typical themes revolve around high school life’s traumas and pre-puberty love games. During the 70s, some critics began to support this style as serious, calling it garage punk.
Filled with nostalgia, Bass Drum of Death is an old ear candy. Like a nervous truce between Nirvana and Sonic Youth, the leader John Barrett has a very good ear and a knack for storytelling. Their latest album is a mass of pulled together and rocky take offs, filled with echoes of garage. Although the album is not eclectic, it diverges into something which is innate, and constantly reminds us of a handmade and old-school style of music, yet staying within the rules of art. The title Shattered Me is a proud representative of the album.
Even if the track spinning is unpacking the same riffs and sounds, this garage band knows what it is doing… Taking us back 30 years they promptly remind uscontemporaries that really, we haven’t invented anything.
Julien Catala