Now that the
post-punk revival
has started winding down, it's up to new bands to start exploring deeper into the sub-sub-genres of
rock & roll
's past for new ideas. As a result, California's
Clipd Beaks
take as their starting point the meeting point between the artier, more conceptual end of
progressive rock
and
punk
's D.I.Y. aggression that led to bands like
This Heat
, very early
Scritti Politti
, the
Homosexuals
, and much of the late-'70s roster of
Chris Cutler
's
Recommended Records
label. From the cover image of an anonymous photo from an old porn magazine mutated into a creepy Dada montage to the deliberately off-putting sounds within,
Hoarse Lords
is pretty tough sledding. The nine lengthy songs ring minimal changes on one basic theme: prominent bass and drums overpowering near-atonal keyboards, guitars, and tape loops, with
Nic Barbeln
's moaned, wailed, and sighed vocals buried in the very back of the mix for maximum lack of clarity. The reason it works is that
aren't interested in noise for its own sake: for all the seeming randomness of songs like
"We Will Bomb You (We Will),"
the band never devolves into aimless free-form honk-blat-phwee in the manner of
noise rock
contemporaries like
Sunburned Hand of the Man
. Indeed, there are moments on
, such as the closing
"Let It Win"
and the brief hidden instrumental track that follows, that approach a strange kind of beauty. ~ Stewart Mason