Background Music,
Give Up The GhostI suppose it’s well documented on here that I pretty much detest all this new style emocore stuff flying around. It’s true, I hate all the pretension – from the GCSE poetry of the lyrics to the self-absorbed and supposedly ‘progressive’ music, it just doesn’t float my boat. So it was with a certain (read: a lot) amount of trepidation that I approached Background Music, seeing as GUTG are usually lumped with the rest of the wank. Plus the fact that a lot of the local scene kids are wearing GUTG t-shirts these days meant that I wasn’t even sure if I was cool enough to own the disc.
Happily enough, the opening riff of ‘(we are)’ allayed some of my fears. The blistering hardcore pace is maintained throughout the admittedly short album (less than 24 minutes for 11 tracks), and on ‘Postmark My Condition’ the sheer speed and violence of Jarrod Alexander’s drumming, along with Tim Cossar and Brian Masek’s scything riffs simply bludgeons you into submission. Stylistically it’s very similar to the traditional New Jersey style of hardcore, replete with customary pit-pleasing breakdowns aplenty on ‘I.C. You Are Feeling Drake’ and ‘Shoplifting In A Ghost Town.’ There’s very little in the way of ‘quiet-loud-quiet’ here because it’s all ‘loud-loud-louder’ and it works to GUTG’s advantage because it doesn’t feel as if they’re hitching a lift on the nearest bandwagon, and the fact that they’re supremely gifted when it comes to playing this fast for this long is nothing but a bonus.
My main problem with Background Music is the vocals – they’re pitched between shouting and screaming, and on ‘Hearts’ Wes Eisold sounds a bit like a younger Phil Anselmo, especially with the copious riffs exploding behind him. Unfortunately it drags fairly quickly and it’s more frustrating than anything else. ‘God Save The Queen’ is an excellently energetic track but it feels like Eisold is straining slightly too hard to add the abrasive edge to his voice. If he concentrated on putting more body behind the lyrics I think the end result would be much more impressive. As it is, he’s got a long way to go before he’s really in control of the songs. But what do I know? I like ska.
I was pleasantly surprised with Background Music – an album of traditional hardcore played at a ridiculous speed with enough technical ability to elevate it above the standard fare. If this album was released two years ago it would have caused a minor stir, then vanished but in today’s climate it’ll go down an absolute storm. In my opinion that’s a good thing, because as an example of brutally impressive music bursting with intelligent ideas, it’s exemplary. If you’re looking for a quick fix of whining fashioncore, look elsewhere.
Ben
www.burningheart.com
