Out of the ashes of The Nood and The Pennydreadfuls comes the new project from guitarist/songwriter Phil Morgan. Crash Through straddles the proto-punk of The Stooges and The Dictators and the alternative/noise of The Pixies and Mudhoney with socially aware lyrics to boot. Sonically similar his earlier work, the intervening years along with the help of fellow Pennydreadfuls refugees Richard Schweizer (bass) and Tim McAlpin (drums) have helped to sharpen Morgan’s songwriting while still remaining on the edge. Now they have a debut album to show for their efforts.
Beautiful Ragged Mayhem is a worthy first effort from the band without being a world contender, even if that had been on their radar. Morgan has always a purist approach, eschewing anything that might be deemed ‘commercial’ or even ‘normal’ in favour of challenging both the senses and the minds of his audience. This is Shock ‘n Awe rock, no question.
The basic tracks were cut at TLS Studios with the overdubs and vocals put down at Morgan’s home studio. While a popular method these days the results can be mixed, and that is what seems to have happened here. The drums have a highly compressed timbre that jars with the ragged guitars. The kick drum pounds out of the speakers, the snare lies buried somewhere in the mix and the cowbell sounds more like an empty milk bottle. The lead vocals often sound dry, crying out for another drop of reverb, and also are occasionally placed too high in the mix. The bass sound is a tad muddy but otherwise acceptable. That being said, there are a good mix of guitar tones on the tracks, the acoustic guitars being done particularly well. However, Morgan’s love of experimentation often leads him to make unorthodox choices that result in some otherwise radio-worthy songs being kept in the ‘Too Raw’ pile. Maybe that was the intention. While far from being a tough listen, Beautiful Ragged Mayhem feels more like a sonic patchwork than the unified sound Morgan was hoping for. Doing more cuts live may preserved the punk ethos better.
So what of the songs themselves? There are some real gems on this record. ‘It’s All Backwards’, ‘I Know It’s Not Right’, and the title track get stuck in the mind easily and would be at home on a major label release (tidied up for the teenyboppers, of course). Faster tracks like ‘Nothing Can Slow Us Down’ and ‘Acronym Blues’ give a nod to their old school punk heroes. Surprisingly, the listener is treated to not only acoustic guitar but also organ on this record, both tones that Crash Through are not known for in their live shows. This ultimately goes to the heart of the Crash Through philosophy: Conformity is Treachery. If the listener is led to question their assumptions about what is Good, Acceptable or Safe in art then the song is a success even if the riff was fluffed a bit coming into the second chorus.
But herein lies the rub: when you produce art which is disconcerting and raw you leave yourself open to criticism. How raw is too raw? What would have happened if things had been polished up just that little bit more? Does it really matter if no-one likes it? A confronting performance will always alienate at least as many people as it attracts, most likely more. And it is questions like the above that ran through my head as I considered the musical performances on this record.
Morgan has always been a guitarist who has been driven by sonics and soul rather than technique. It doesn’t hurt that he has more than passable technique anyway and that he has continued to improve over the years. It comes as no surprise that his is the most confident performance on the record, with tight rhythm riffs and punchy solos in the old-skool punk tradition. His tones range from funkily clean to a heavy fuzz with plenty of buzzes, squeaks, and feedbacking yowls. Unfortunately, the rhythm section does not appear to be firing on all cylinders. Schweizer holds down a solid low end, but his habit of merely following the changes rather than trying to find a melodic counterpoint to the madly riffing Morgan means that there feels like something is lacking downstairs in the bass-ment. Listening to some old Greed Day albums wouldn’t hurt. McAlpin is a straight down the line, four-on-the-floor rocker with a personality not dissimilar from Animal on The Muppet Show. As such he sometimes seems to struggle with Morgan’s off-beat driven riffs and non-bluesy changes. All together, it sometimes feels as if Schweizer and McAlpin are trying to chase down Morgan rather than them all moving as a group. Sometimes the phrenetic nature of the music means that this is not a problem, but at places it comes drastically unstuck. Though it pains me to say it, a low point of the record is the long-standing live favourite ‘Milk Crate’. A psychedelic funk rocker with an obscene sing-along refrain, both the beat and the tempo appear to have been lost somewhere in the studio process. The song appears rushed, the guitar and drums out of step (a mortal sin in the Church of Funk) and the bass fails to fill sonic gaps in the verses.
Is Beautiful Ragged Mayhem then the magnum opus of Mr Phil Morgan? The short answer is No, but this sells the album drastically short. Crash Through have put together a fine work on their own terms rather than chasing commercial or critical validity. As with any project of this nature, this will inevitably lead to aspects that will be filed in the Could Have Been Done Better folder. Yet the high points, when they do come, show remarkable accomplishment and a true artistic vision. Crash Through are a band of great potential both onstage and in the studio. To have put out this type of record in the current climate where all artists are airbrushed and fashion styles to within an inch on their life takes guts. Whatever the sales figures, Crash Through should look upon their debut album as a success and press on to greater glories. The General Public, however, would be wise to take my advice and jump on the Crash Through train now, if only for the satisfaction of saying you were into them before they turned slick and commercial.
Crash Through launch their debut album at the Annandale Hotel on Friday September 17.
www.crashthrough.com.au
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