Pound Land: Violence

(Merciless Nature Information)

Cassette | DL

Out Now

BUY HERE

Manchester’s Pound Land are again with Violence, an album heaving with post-industrial punk and noisy experimentation. Andy Brown shares his ideas for Louder Than Warfare.

Mere months after unleashing their singles and B-sides assortment, Manchester’s Pound Land are again with a brand new full-length album. Violence finds the band sounding larger, uglier and noisier than ever earlier than. This, pricey reader, is superb information certainly. Effectively, no less than it’s when you get pleasure from post-industrial punk, noise-ridden electronics and seething diatribes towards corruption, austerity and outright idiocy. Throw in a splash of sophistication polarisation, company hegemony, automation and media manipulation for good measure. Sure, you could very properly recognise the landscapes and characters conjured by guitarist Nick Harris and vocalist Adam Stone. Amongst different contributors, the duo is joined by Richard Lamell on bass, Steve Taylor on drums and Jo Stone on sax. Over eight uncompromising tracks, the band pulls us right into a punishing, thirty-seven-minute hellscape. That is punk with the compulsory two-chord thrash changed by gigantic, groaning partitions of cathartic noise. Buckle up.

Many moons in the past Ian Dury tried to offer us some causes to be cheerful but it’s sadly a lot simpler to search out causes to be completely furious. Programmed units the darkish and sonically overwhelming tone with a seven-minute tsunami of twisted noise and strangled sax. Pound Land’s final launch was loud however this takes issues to an entire new stage of neighbour-frightening noisiness. “It’s laborious to have hope when the idiots are in cost” snarls Stone. A sentiment I’m certain we are able to all relate to. The Final Undergo has a deliciously unhinged, Butthole Surfers-esque vibe and is pushed ahead by some brilliantly bowl-loosening bass. Stone’s vocals have a chameleonic high quality as they modify from music to music. Quite a lot of accents and characters filtered by means of spoken phrase and rabid punk drawl. It’s one among many parts that makes the album so partaking.

The minimalist electro-punk of New Labour hits like a uncooked Sleaford Mods observe as Stone repeatedly screams, “Centrist saviour of New Labour!” It doesn’t sound like a praise when the lyrics are spat by means of gritted enamel. A second of political optimism now tainted. Though after 13 years of tyrannical Tory rule, I’m actually hoping that issues can solely get higher. Violence is an album that captures that sense of perpetual anger, frustration and ever-creeping hopelessness. After all, it does all that whereas making a gloriously malevolent racket. Six Inch is an ominous providing, rife with doom-laden guitars, frantic sax and bludgeoning drums. The band drags us into the tense, intoxicated and misanthropic grime. The curtains are closed and the paranoia is kicking in. There isn’t a music title extra illustrative of the album’s basic temperament than Fucking Joke. Appropriately sufficient, the music itself is a belligerent and raging torrent of disgust.

Stone’s voice feels like he’s gargled with a mug of rusty nails as he growls by means of the livid Media Amnesia. “Some twats had a row on breakfast TV/ Some bombs gone off out of the country” he spits as Pound Land bum-rush the studio, “Loosen up you received’t bear in mind any of this subsequent week/ Too busy spending your fucking life asleep.” Submit-truth media, collective amnesia and lightweight leisure sedation. Oh my, the spirit of Crass is alive and properly. Low Well being is the strangest music right here as Stone seems to change into an aged gentleman, wheezing, warbling about worrying in regards to the folks outdoors his home. The music is an experimental throb of droning electronics and brain-rattling noise. There’s a surreal strand of humour right here but the environment stays decidedly unnerving. Hear on headphones at midnight and also you’ll fairly presumably go quickly insane.

Violence Half 2 seems like a six-foot signal emblazoned with the phrases abandon all hope. A gateway to hell or a stroll across the block? The lyrics are buried underneath a menacing wall of commercial noise however they concern a cycle of jail, the streets and grim, seemingly inescapable violence. A bleak, nihilistic howl of a music that hits like an avalanche. There’s a reasonably candy guitar solo buried within the combine too. The observe offers an extremely highly effective and oddly acceptable ending. Together with Primitive Knot, Pound Land are making a number of the most interesting heavy music to ever come out of the wet metropolis. Singles Membership was an unequivocally offended and spectacular launch but Violence seems like a extra targeted and apocalyptic providing. Effectively, if we’re all going to hell in a handcart no less than we’ll have a superb soundtrack.

~

Discover Pound Land on Bandcamp, Instagram and YouTube.

All phrases by Andy Brown. You possibly can go to his creator profile and browse extra of his opinions for Louder Than Warfare right here.