Newton Aces – Firing Squad Ditch pt 2
I dare say that 2021 was not so bad. In some ways, we might not know how good we have it. In other ways, we may be unconsciously avoiding thinking of the truly distressing things that would really keep us up at night and take away the semblance of mental comfort that we have left.
Has life always been this violent? No, we’re living at a time in history that for many countries of the world, the world has never been this peaceful. However, just like Dostoevsky waiting to be executed, only to find out that the Tsar had decided to pardon him at the very last moment, we too should know the peril that we could quickly be under.
England’s Newton Aces certainly believe that’s the case. Their brand of protest, post-punk, bleak, angry, yet eager to entice to make tough calls within the life that they’re living, always boils with tension and despair. Firing Squad Ditch pt 2 is blunt and violent, but, perhaps, the only way people might listen. Life is still what you make it, but the choices are the ones that are kept hidden most of the time.
Possible Oceans – Nothing’s Shocking
If rock music managed to be shocking in its earliest days, it did it by revealing the truth about the world. Up to the 1960s, pop music was generally reserved in integrating any elements that might offend the general public. Any woes and problems besides personal heartache, which was usually resolved swiftly, were laid to the side.
However, once it had made its comments about the war, the government machine, or even about modern life’s existential dread, the only place to go was to overexpose information and distort it. From the shoegaze, noise-rock, and post-punk bands onwards, rock artists have become masters of revealing little and letting the mystery create blanks that people need to fill.
Possible Oceans have studied these kinds of artists well. Nothing’s Shocking is a doomy, yet sexy-sounding record. It’s a dancefloor horror. The group knows how to employ a bass sound to get the feet moving, electro elements to make the record sound modern, and enough character to the vocals to make them distinguishable from the hordes of similar-minded indie-rock groups.
