ALBUM REVIEWS
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ALBUM REVIEWS |
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!Forward, Russia!
LIFE PROCESSES COOKING VINYL 14.04.08 @www.vanguard-online.co.uk
No messing about – straight into a cathedral of guitars, mid-tune with strained vocals. It’s like jumping on the back of a fleeing horse. Just as characteristically, mid-song, they slow to describe the ways in which God is angry. It’s a structuralist Arcade Fire. An exercise in deadly seriousness that might just have a tongue tucked in a cheek, not that it’d tell you. Somewhat more relaxed than debut album, Give Me A Wall, and with rather more soul than the rather dry and concentrated gig I saw on the MTV2 tour, Life Processes is the first release on a different label. Deciding to split creation off from marketing, the band have left Dance To The Radio to work on other bands while they go with left-field Cooking Vinyl, definitely not an obvious choice. Singer Tom Woodhead warns that it is both heavier and quieter than previous work and the band has asked that people give the album a few listens before passing judgement. That’s normally a bit of a warning sign but Forward Russia are both as accessible and as barricaded as before. They still live inside a walled community of ringing guitars fused to glass with warning sirens of off-kilter vocal lines and serious lyrics. On the other hand, the lyrics have meaning when listened to and despite the lack of obvious hooks, the serious intent of the band draws the attention and Tom’s yelps become a part of the instrumentation, decorating the massed choir of guitars and stepping between the gripping drum beats. Then, halfway through the album, Tom starts singing tunes and confuses the issue…. It’s not an easy listen but neither is it the study-project the band might have you think and offers itself up rapidly. It is symptomatic of the move back to Prog Rock that is dragging us away again from the pulse at the heart of rock music. This is no more music you can dance to, thrill to or love to than My Bloody Valentine. It’s a Faberge Egg – an object of craftsmanship that ultimately serves no purpose beyond decoration. But very decorative it is. www.forwardrussia.com |
