Aversions – Two Score to a Ward
Genre: Post-Punk
Similar artists: Protomartyr, Shame, La Dispute
I suppose that it’s true that music succeeds where words fail. But, let’s face it. A guitar solo can be highly expressive. It can move an audience to tears, or to laughter. It rarely says much about the player though.
The problem with great, complex music is that it looks to channel something outside of the writer. In other words, it’s often too smart for its own good. It leaves the writer, like Frank Zappa, reduced to having to complain about the audience not having received the proper education to enjoy it.
Aversions are stripping those pretensions on Two Score to a Ward. Instead, they’re going for full engagement. Their singer, in particular, sounds like the kind of unfriendly drunk that you can’t ignore or avoid. You might not like it, but there’s no way that you can close your ears to what he has to say. Aversions make anti-right-wing protests listenable.
Deceits – Failures
Genre: Post-Punk, Gothic / Dark Wave
Similar artists: Twin Tribes, The Cure, Human Tetris, Lebanon Hanover, Motorama, Molchat Doma
Becoming a master of any subject is a real hassle. It takes an inordinate amount of time. There’s nobody really to confirm just how much you’ve advanced. And, if the subject, is not of grave concern to the world, you’re likely to carry on your studies by yourself.
Trickier of all is the acceptance that becoming a true master of any discipline is an unattainable goal. The discipline and faith required though sculpt people into better versions of themselves. Some work their whole lives to become martial arts masters, others to become masters of post-punk.
Deceits have chosen the latter. And, by the sound of Failures, they’ve really dived into their mission. This is not mere danceable post-punk. It’s a terrifically designed recreation of the origin of the genre. These are sounds rarely caught on tape that, at best, might exist in the brain and hearts of people that were witnesses to its birth. Deceits’ dedication and understanding of what makes this sound work is very impressive.
