Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sonic Eighties, 8 Jan 2008
The first sixteen bars of opening track "Missing You" play the same sequence of notes over and over again and last for no more than 24 seconds. Yet this is long enough for you to already get lost in the dense fog of sonic fuzz that is the motif of this debut album from New York three-piece A Place To Bury Strangers. Moreover, the song also introduces you to Oliver Ackermann's typically bleak, monotone, and indistinct style of singing, as well as his own handmade pedals that are used to alter his guitar's sounds so much.
Indeed, if this first song is the modern day equivalent of Ian Curtis fronting for Jesus & Mary Chain, then the next one, "Don't Think Lover", sees his namesake, Ian Brown performing in a similar capacity for My Bloody Valentine. This retro theme of 1980s UK super groups continues later on then with Morrissey being the lead man for New Order on "I Know I'll See You"!
The band claims to be the loudest band in New York. Given that the good folk of this city are famed for not being reticent about getting their point of view across, this is quite a boast. The songs themselves are an independent release of various recordings that they have made up and until now. This also helps to explain the somewhat disunited feel to the album. Since releasing this album the band have signed a recording contract, with a new album expected out later this year.
Another key feature of the album is its, at times, intense use of treble-laden synthesized loops. This is most notable on "To Fix The Gash In Your Head", where the impenetrable wall of white noise laid down seems to be the cause of the problem in the first place!
My favourite song though is "Another Step Away". Ackermann's distorted vocals are punishing here in their darkness and sparseness. Later on, "She Dies" is a haunting song where Ackermann sings distantly over a drum machine in the gaps between dense wails of contorted noise. It is followed by the epically surging sounds of "My Weakness" and the droning melody of final track "Ocean".
The overall sense for the album is that rather than burying strangers, the band has instead been calling upon the spirits of great British guitar bands from 20-25 years ago. Not they are the first nor the last to do this. That said, they clearly have the ability to take this source material as a starting point and then fashion their own intensely layered sonic textures from it. Even so, if history does tend to repeat itself, then the chances are that this band will never sound so raw, remorseless, and riveting again. Commercial realities often seem to have that effect... So, play this album loudly. And be unapologetic about doing so! Its time to wake the dead!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
We,ve got several effects pedals and by god we are going to use them ., 22 Dec 2008
In lieu of My Bloody Valentine actually ever making another album A Place To Bury Strangers is actually a pretty decent substitute. Released originally last year but in a limited edition of 500 copies it has been re-released because of extra demand which makes the original limited release either a smart marketing ploy or just a daft thing to do in the first place. Either way this album has suddenly snuck , or more aptly bludgeoned ,it's way into my top albums of the year list.
Lest the My Bloody Valentine comparison make you think this band are mere copyists of said band let me tell you they aren't. While they share many of the blurry edged textures of MBV circa "Isnt Anything " they also incorporate elements of Ministry, The Jesus And Mary Chain, Mudhoney and probably most pertinently Suicide whose ability to lock in a decimating groove they share.
Oliver Ackermann, front man of Brooklyn three-piece A Place to Bury Strangers: Under his catch-all company name Death by Audio (it's also a music venue, recording studio, and collective), custom-builds and designs his own hand-wired pedals, which are used by everyone from Lightning Bolt and Serena Maneesh to Wilco, Spoon, and TV on the Radio. He was previously a member of defunct Fredericksburg, Va., dream-pop revivalists Skywave, whose records who even more closely recalled MBV and JAMC. After their break up Ackermann moved to New York where he hooked up with drummer Jay Space and bassist Jono Mofo, and cranked up the vox of Tim Gregorio and formed A Place To Bury Strangers.
It would be all well and good relying on volume and velocity but Ackermann is sussed enough to vary the textures and pace of the songs. The grumbling Cure like "I Know I'll See You" is followed by the distorted carouseling and scatty rhythms of "She Dies" .Opening track "Missing You" is an insistent discharge of flechette guitars with sudden shimmering oasis breaks in the assault . "My Weakness" is like Big Black beamed in from another dimension while "Ocean " most readily recalls Joy Division but a far more bilious version with lacerating outbursts of six string frenzy .Best of all is "Breathe" which revolves around a terrific superannuated riff and freezing rain guitar. The wonderfully titled "To Fix The Gash In Your Head" starts like some stomping Italian disco monster till the stuttering bass and sparking guitars kick in.
Even a slower more amorphous track like "The Falling Sun" while not as vital as much of the material on the album has moments of startling aural overflow. The album recalls way too many other bands to be deemed as anything original but what it does extremely well is assimilate and coalesce familiar sounds into something that sounds fresh , exciting , vital. That's as much to do with the dearth of decent guitar bands around at the moment but that's not the fault of this band .What they do they do very well indeed. Nearly as well as MBV in fact. Hell of a compliment I would say.
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~ A Place to Bury Strangers
~ Deerhunter
~ Health
~ No Age
~ The Black Angels
