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Miss Violetta Beauregarde, "Odi Profanum Vulgus et Arceo"
On her second album, Italy's Miss Violetta Beauregarde packs 16 songs into a mere 20 minutes, yet each one brims with more ideas than some bands' entire albums. Created from crappy electronics, glitch beats, screams, with occasional samples and other noises, her frenetic, anarchic nihilism is a much needed kick in the head.
Beauregarde broadcasts her attitude right away with the album title, which from the Latin roughly translates as, "I hate the common crowd and I spurn them." Yet as antisocial as she presents herself to be, she offsets much of it with bratty black humor, especially with titles like "Adolf Hitler's Emotional Side," "I Can't Believe, Hedgehogs Have a Bone Inside Their Cock," and my personal favorite, "I'm the Tiennamen Square Guy and You All Are the Fucking Tanks."
The album begins with "Flanger When You Die," a brutal assault that gradually transforms into beats underneath her imploring shouts. Other than "The Man Who Shot at the Squirrels (A Tribute to Glenn Benton)," most of the songs aren't quite so harsh but many come perilously close. Things aren't so chaotic all the time, with songs like "Try to Misunderstand This One" and "Tiennamen" flirting with pop, though she uses sneak attacks to subvert those conventional impulses. She slows things down a little with the mostly instrumental "How to Use a Good Idea Until It Turns Into a Bad Idea" before revving her engines again for another run.
Her approach is child-like as she grabs whatever bits and pieces draw her attention at the moment and drops them in favor of something else per her whims, assimilating her influences so quickly that they nearly vanish before they can register. As a result, her songs never have a chance to get stagnant or wear out their welcome. Almost always abrasive, they're also cathartic and invigorating. I can't complain that the album's sole flaw is its brevity considering that the remedy is simply to play it again before my frayed synapses have a chance to heal.
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