Leizure – Heaven and Back (Again)
Similar artists: The Gun Club, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Crime & The City Solution
Genre: Post-Punk
Famously, Nick Cave once wrote about how one of the Bad Seeds quit the band by stating bluntly that he hadn’t joined rock n’ roll to actually play rock n’ roll. This is a sentiment echoed by many people these days, especially those whose stomachs are routinely turned from witnessing guitar bands demean themselves in hopes of achieving some measly chart success.
On the other hand, most of the few interesting bands of old were making music because they had no friends and, most importantly, wanted to make damn sure that things remained this way. The sound that they produced together was important only so long as it had the potential to stir emotions related to anger or hatred. It’s hard to find young musicians willing to be actively disliked. Most of them are a soft bunch, alright.
Not this lot. Leisure’s Heaven and back (again) sounds like the homework of philosophy students that have become a little too enthralled with the work of great nihilists. It’s the work of well-read people who are ready to pick a fight with anyone willing to respond. It’s music made to soundtrack a fistfight or two. And it’s something that recalls Howard S. Rowland or Nick Cave in their youth.
Holy Ship – Prodigal Son
Similar artists: Trentemøller, The Horrors, TVAM, Primal Scream
Gothic / Dark Wave, Shoegaze, Psychedelic Rock
The great rock n’ roll stars never belonged to the age in which they achieved their fame. Or, at least, they tried their very best to tell us that they didn’t. Some of them hinted at outer space as their birthplace. Others behaved like savages, unconcerned with consequences and dents in their reputation.
But, perhaps, the most interesting group mined the mysterious nature of spirituality and its importance in history. Sure, not everyone can have the good taste of recreating Stonehenge as a stage prop. But, it’s worth treasuring the modern occult rituals of psychedelic, spooky electro music and its continued, profound effects on pop culture.
With this in mind, Holy Ship attempt to sound like wholly unusual, unhinged spiritual beggars on Prodigal Son. Speed this up and clean up the production, and it may sound like a Stonesy rock jam. But, under its current guise, it’s a tune meant to soundtrack Bacchic dances, where the guitars swoosh like beams coming down from the heavens and the drums pound like cavemen worshipping ancient gods. The priests of old, with their religions that have been swallowed up by time, would be pretty proud of the direction some of us modern folk have taken.