3-track album whatswhatstuff by Battery Face is available to stream now over at Bandcamp. That means we’re sneaking into the room that houses the Ghostbusters’ containment unit and listening to what goes on inside as the pressure gauge starts to peak into the red…
Inspiration or imitation? How often have you heard a band or artist and immediately thought they sounded too much like their musical heroes?
One of the reasons why I love Glasgow band Battery Face is that they are hard to pigeonhole. Even a band like United Fruit tend to obey song structures and use choruses no matter how much invention they apply.
Not so with the latest release from Battery Face which is essentially three live improvised jams or acts. Already in my mind I can think of the type of phrases that could be used to describe this type of release. Let’s side-step those and see what it leaves us with.
ACT II
For a rough and ready release, there’s an authentic quality to this post-apocalyptic soundscape. What I mean is, by the time we get onto jam two entitled, “Formacuealicue“, I’m certain this is a fantastic piece of work. Presented with EIGHTEEN MINUTES of sounds that would fit nicely alongside the next Matrix trilogy, it’s astonishing that none of that length is remotely boring. As soon as I finish listening to it I go back to the first track to re-establish my sense of perspective.
ACT I
Opener “Justin Bieber Sausage” works fine as the opening act, lulling us into a false sense of understanding. Screeching alone across the night’s sky, it’s like that tiny dot that fades into the distance on a cinema screen that eventually reveals your entire field of view to be not nothingness but in fact something so stupendously massive that it’s only now can we comprehend and finally see it come into view. And that’s what “Formacuealicue” sounds like by comparison.
ACT III
The third act, “Under The Canopy Of The Electromagnetic Jungle” is a dark fantasy, conjuring up images of your paranoid nightmares. It’s deliciously unpleasant and leaves you with an uneasy sense of disintegration. Or it’s just some dudes making weird noises in a room. Why over-intellectualise it any further?
Visit Bandcamp Now To Listen To BATTERY FACE
