Labels: Double Dot Dash
Review by: Alex Hannan
PERSONNEL have been around a fair while, formed as far back as mid 2012, but have progressed at their own pace – understandable considering that members are busy in a number of other bands including FRAU, GOOD THROB and LOVE TRIANGLE. Their debut 7″ kicks off with a few measures of brittle discordant guitar and a sullen WIRE-referencing alienation screed: “Beep beep I am an answering machine / Dot dash dip flash don’t crash don’t crash / I am a robot and I obey” – before settling into a loping rhythm driven by Ashleigh’s distinctive clean but hard-picked bass sound. It’s spacious but prickly, guitar gradually playing a larger role over the course of the song but never dominating, and the chorus mutates over 3 of the 4 repetitions. The band seem loath to rehash ideas directly, which lends a sort of fidgety, hyperactive undertone, undermining the faux naive lyrics – “I must have the future no matter the cash / It’s thinner, it’s quicker, it’s certain to last / How did I manage with all this old crap? […] I’ll get it on credit cuz it’s beyond my means / Can’t wait one more moment, I need it this week.”
“Modern drab” ventures through verses of ramshackle jangle pop with a grey recitation of shopping mall boredom, “Given laughs I didn’t want / Given flyers by a cunt / Sucked in spat out bought a top / No-one I like goes in that shop” and then blossoms into a chorus which evokes the deftly managed, rough and tumble euphoria of the UNDERTONES, finally exploring more abstract chord cycles for an unwinding of tension before the first verse repeat. A real highlight of the 7″. Something of the first side even reminds me a little of BLUR around the time of “Modern life is rubbish”, the vein of British post-punk that they in turn drew from and the melancholy at the heart of tedium they dissected.
“Hysteria” ups the tempo with a white-line-fever monotone, whipping out the downstrokes, with nagging guitar lines and a litany of media-engineered fusses. It has a memorable bridge which appears just once, a concise, energetic song. “Close quarters” is the only one I’m not so keen on, not as hooky as the others, the instrumentation a bit overstuffed and featuring a lurching chorus rhythm which rubs me up the wrong way (I can’t listen to it without being reminded of a specific LES SAVY FAV song.) The lyrics are the best part, a nuanced meditation on closeness and distance. “It feels so odd when you’re away / Or cosied up with all your other mates / The smell, the sound / I know when you’re around / The light, the heat / I sense when you have been” and then “I reminisce of time we spent / Well maybe we should stay in touch…? / But it’s always inconvenient.”
I saw a great set from them live earlier this year, more commanding than might have been expected from the relatively understated, slow-growing tone of this recording. I’m interested to check out their other songs – there are another 6 as yet unreleased from the same session – and will be keeping an eye out for another of their rare appearances.