I say this every time I hear a band from Scandinavia but I really do imagine that they don’t reproduce in the same way that we do in Britain, I get images of this machine that just churns out these brilliant musicians (and crime writers if we’re to be fair here) as if they were robots rather than people. So here is another band, The Megaphonic Thrift, from Norway this time (rather than the usual Sweden) picking up plaudits already for this, their self-titled album out on Club AC30.
This album starts out, annoyingly so (for us British anyway), fantastically, with swirls of distorted noise recalling the better parts of the grunge movement of the very early nineties alongside some noise influences with inspiration clearly coming from the likes of Nirvana, Sonic Youth, The Pixies, Slint, as well as other bands I haven’t yet heard I’m sure. Mid-way through though, the album dips into this dull shoe gaze area, and while I’m all for shoe gaze, I don’t want to listen to something so lackluster that I’m no longer sure as to why I’m even listening to it. Luckily for The Megaphonic Thrift they manage to pull this back and end the album solidly with a series of songs relying on face ripping jagged guitar work, cymbal heavy drumming, and a male and female vocal interplay (wonder where they got that idea from eh?), and some actual melodic hooks that are utterly evil rather than sweet. All of this means that the listener is left with a positive reflection of the album, rather than a forgettable one, and leaves The Megaphonic Thrift with me (and others I’m sure), at least curious as to what they may create next.
There’s a definite trend in this decade to look back and painfully steal bits and pieces from other important era’s. This album was definitely supposed to be born in the late eighties, early nineties era and because of that is a niche but one I feel glad to have heard. It might not be perfect, hell, it’s so very far from being so, and I might not be a fan just yet, but it has had enough strength to make me want to go back and listen to an old Slint record, so with that in mind, job done I guess.
[rating: 3.5]
http://www.myspace.com/megaphonicthrift
