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 (Mute/EMI)
One step forwards, two steps back...
A Place To Bury Strangers centres around guitarist/vocalist Oliver Ackermann, who also builds fuzz pedals for the likes of Trent Reznor, U2 and TV On The Radio at his studio and artist space in NYC. These uniquely extreme devices underpin much of APTBS’s sound, just as Jesus And Mary Chain relied upon the now-infamous (and according to myth, broken) Shen-ei Companion fuzz. APTBS’s 2007 self-titled debut was a collection of masters from their early CDR and MP3 releases, which harboured slinky indie pop songs beneath challenging walls of effacing fuzz. Exploding Head matures this initial sound, with slicker production and better-composed songs. It Is Nothing is a fuzzy, up-tempo shoegazer that’s mixed too evenly. In Your Heart is angular, with sheets of metallic guitar that hook with deceptive simplicity. The band’s characteristically distorted, reverberated drums hit with the feverish intensity of a human being imitating a drum machine, while Ackermann mopes about in his disaffected monotone. Deadbeat is a standout, with its layers of screaming, modulating guitars shoehorned into a concise verse/chorus structure. Similarly, Keep Slipping Away is lushly swollen with reverb and delay which adds great cosmetic depth to the song. Unfortunately, Exploding Head is mostly cosmetic depth. The songs and production are improved, sure, but not enough to replace the morose, misanthropic shittiness that made digging through the debut so rewarding. The band’s appeal (their originality and mystery) is centred around being unpalatable; by being more palatable without getting drastically better they have, predictably, become less appealing. Exploding Head is a decent effort, but not the masterpiece we were hoping for.
***˝
JAKEB SMITH
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