Neo-shoegaze. It’s happening all around us, and seriously, I couldn’t be more thrilled. Not
that shoegaze ever really died completely – there have been plenty of bands capitalizing on reverb and fuzz since 1991, but within the past few years there has been a slew of bands making high quality shoegaze that absolutely deserve attention. Bands like Fleeting Joys, Daysleepers, Screen Vinyl Image, Rumskib, Asobi Seksu, and the now defunct (but still totally awesome) Alcian Blue - just to name a few of my favorites - are putting their own unique spin on the genre, and making a seriously awesome cacophony while they’re at it. A Place to Bury Strangers is among this group of neo-shoegazers, and it would be very unwise if you didn’t start paying attention to them. Now.
(No, seriously. Right now.)
This is what you need to know about APTBS (I’m not typing the name out every time, so get used to the acronym): There was once a fucking awesome band called Skywave that made lots of nerds upset by breaking up and ruining all their fun. Luckily, the members split and created two separate bands out of Skywave’s ashes – APTBS and Ceremony (who is really good in their own right and who is also about to release a record that I’m very much looking forward to). Whereas Ceremony went the way of slightly (but only slightly) more traditional shoegaze, APTBS have created the loudest, dirtiest, bleakest shoegaze I’ve ever heard – ever – thanks to frontman Oliver Ackermann.
If Ackermann’s name sounds familiar, it may be that you’ve heard of his company, Death by Audio, which is, along with being a recording studio and music venue, a place where he dreams up, designs, and custom-builds his own effects pedals. It’s basically a laboratory of feedback and fuzz (sweet!), and the name of one of his more widely known pedals, Total Sonic Annihilation, gives you an idea of the volume Ackermann prefers.
Intense volume and distortion are the defining characteristics of this band. The combination is all-consuming, aggressive, and of course, good, because really, can it ever be too loud or too distorted? (For those that do not grasp the concept of rhetoric, the answer to that question is: no fucking way.) Within seconds of the first track, “Missing You,” you already know what you’re in for – extreme reverb, static, brutal guitar, feedback – essentially, everything that makes shoegaze so great, but exaggerated beyond belief. “To Fix the Gash in Your Head” (which is song about basically wanting to beat someone’s ass - but I mean, someone that totally deserves it) is the best example of this intensity, and also one of the best tracks on the record, with it’s primal drum beat and the loudest fuzz guitar your speakers will allow.
But it’s not all ass-beating and possible restraining orders. There are gentler songs here, as well, but only in attidude, not in actual volume, which never goes down. “Don’t Think Lover” could have been a Skywave track, as dark and pretty as it is. And a favorite of mine, “The Falling Sun,” although delivered in Ackerman’s I’ve-been-emotionally-dead-for-years vocal style, is simply beautiful.
This self-titled album is the band’s first proper release, although there has been a highly coveted CD-R floating around with a handful of these tracks on it for about a year. Needless to say, the people with the CD-R or who stumbled across them via myspace or live shows have been waiting anxiously for something official to be released. Well, we’ve finally got what we’ve been wishing for, but here’s the catch: there are only 500 copies of this extremely excellent record in the whole wide world, so you’d better act quickly.
Release date: Auguest 13, 2007
Label: Killer Pimp Records
Rating: 8.7/10
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