Proudhon have the potential to be fucking ace – so it’s a shame that ‘The Joy Of Sex’ doesn’t quite deliver what they clearly will one day. The Brighton quintet pose ominously in all black in their sleeve (by the way, the art is amazing), and complete with side-parting dark hair, I really feared the worst. But this is a brutal record that takes in the likes of Converge and Norma Jean and gives it a real kick in the arse. Any band that can mix sub-two minutes tracks with an almost ten minute opus, and never be dull, really deserves all the judos they get. But despite all this there’s an ‘x’ factor which leaves Proudhon short of delivering what you know they will eventually. Add to that the fact this CD sounds like it was recorded in a garbage can and there are a few niggling faults which sadly brings the score down.
Starting with the rip-roaring ‘This Aeroplane Is Falling and The Engine Is Ablaze’ with a wall of feedback, Proudhon starts as they mean to go on. They mix a brutal cacophony of guitars with soaring vocal melodies, and while there is an element of stop/start riffs, the drums hit so hard it never sounds contrived. Ditto ‘RomeoVsJuliet’, which literally spews vocals over a terrifying backdrop of hardcore. At less than two minutes in length, it never outstays its welcome. ‘R&R’, for me, is Proudhon’s best track; a song that builds and torments and fucking shreds when the time is right. The melodic vocals work really well alongside the screams, and the songs show maturity that their more well-known peers would be envious of. It says it all when you can pull off as lengthy a track as ‘Goodnight My Brave Assassin’ and not be bored too, but there’s so much going on that the track remains interesting for the duration. Sadly the production is too tinny. The band states in the sleeve they recorded this without the aid of a computer, and fair play to them, but this could sound so much bigger and better.
‘The Joy Of Sex’ is a great hardcore record – and this comes from someone who isn’t a hardcore fan. If the band can tighten up their recording skills and make it sound better (without losing any of the raw bite they already have) then this will improve their sound tenfold. When they go melodic Proudhon are as good as any hardcore band I’ve come across this year – it’ll be interesting to see where they go from here.
www.proudhon.co.uk
MidMarchRecords
Paul
