There’s smoke in the air and beer by the laptops as Guessmencombine heavy stamping of the feet, cheap digital damage overload andmuch growling.
GM Produce
Atjust under eleven and a half minutes long this four-track releasecovers an area of musical no man’s land with both abandon andreflection in equal amounts. Where Guessmen’s musical soundclashinstantly aurally succeeds while others flounder through musicalpatchworks is the fact that the messy bang and stutter sounds soanimated and exciting.
There’s realskill and attention to detail in making the constantly scatteringparticles of “Average Fish”s glitchy stomping analogueness sound likethe anthem of the most coherent drunk man to ever threaten a yard ofale. With more than enough remarkable debris in the background tothoroughly mangle a less solid tune there’s a coherent electronicjunkyard aesthetic to much of the band’s repertoire that’s occasionallysoftened by more conventional but refreshing instrumentation like theclarinet.
Even though they ablyprove that they bang like the highest heeled unshaven Warp signed glamband ever they’re wise enough to also advertise their more thoughtfulside. The sequencing of the melancholic alcohol tinged regret-filledcloser “Human Being Kind” brings the band a more mature perspectiveleaving the EP with the tinkling of the milkman’s delivery on the‘morning after’. Its softer electronic musical droplets (tears?) andrain on grass FX give a sensible flipside to the megaphone barked freakshow tales and after “Troglodyte”s asthmatic skank has battered thebrain with its tree trunk arms it’s a welcome relief.
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