S. Process - More Me
(Track Star)
For the first 2 songs, this record sounds like a new religion. It opens with a bit of processed guitar, then a bass line and a drummer, then some electronic squiggles. Then the song hits, with guitar and bass riding each other, the drumming frantic, the vocals scatting beneath all that motion. Doesn't matter what he's barking; inside all this glory, he's urging troops to war, he's pounding his fist on the podium, he's trying to reach God. Just as the pressure abates, and everything seems calmer, this sound cuts through the silence—this violent metallic growl, like a knife is stabbing into a transformer over and over again. And then the second song slams straight into the first—a burst of distortion introduces a monolithic slab of rhythm, guitar, drums, and bass slobbering all over each other, wet and sweating hard, up on the down stroke, grinding against each other, climaxing in this cloud of overdriven static.
It's not surprising that this onslaught doesn't continue. The next 8 tracks position S. Process as a group with more interest in subterfuge and stealth than brute force. At the forefront, of course, is rhythm—as with the oft-imitated Gang of Four, the bass and drums rule the day, with the guitar either staying in line with the rhythm section or offering up strange sounds to complement the beat. Also in the mix are other noisemakers, like Moogs and turntables. This arrangement allows the aforementioned one-two punch to segue into two decidedly different instrumentals (the downshifted "Playing House With Traci Lords," and the slow, twitching sketch "More Less of You"). Sometimes (as on "Rabbits"), these gadgets change the setting from a post-punk hoedown to a glitch-happy think tank. They also help season the more conventional numbers with squeals and walls of sound that sound right at home. While more full-tilt thrashing would have been fun, this eclectic mix of circuits and strings and things that go squee in the night turns out to be much more interesting and substantial. And fun.
|
