Labels: art for blind
Review by: Joe Caithness
There are not many UK DIY bands I feel any real affinity with beyond music, but
Facel Vega is right a the top of the list of the bands that I do. From their origins as angry
teenage punx at State Run, I’ve been following this lot closely, and over the years they have
put out an impressive amount of consistently high quality material. I doubt Facel Vega will
ever be cool and reach outside the DIY ghetto, but they are the kinda band that when you
mentioned their name to someone in pub conversation it ends up rawkus discussion about who
likes them more.
So “The Body” is finally here, after years in the making, and on first listen I
have to say it absolutely kicked my fucking ass. To the point I couldn’t really think about
reviewing it because I was too busy drumming on my legs with my fists. Musically this
covers all the ground they have done in their lifespans both in this band and State Run
previously as well as expanding out into new musical territories, exploring the make up of
their influences in more detail.
This is an album, not a collection of the band’s output over the year it was
recorded. It explodes from track to track, varying from hip shaking Nation of
Ulysses or Rocket From the Crypt esque evil rock n roll wiggles, to passionate mid paced
Revolution Summer groans, to full on wall of noise thrash outs, to grooved out passages
blending the various explosions. It’s sequenced and pieced together perfectly.
One standout track is the title song “The Body” which starts tense, gets tenser, and
implodes into a stabbing nervous breakdown and then completely falls apart within about 30
seconds. Just when then the assault is kicking your ass, “Gertrude” kicks in mid album with
a Rites of Spring esque heart string tugger. They even have their “pop song” with “I Built
Myself”, you can almost sing along with that one.
Basically, this is for me possibly the best album I have heard by a UK DIY punk band,
and I don’t say that lightly. From start to finish this is simply one of the most
impressively noisy, melodic, musical, raging, grooving, cathartic punk records I have
heard.