Erase Errata - 'Other Animals' / 'At Crystal Palace' (Blast First)
4/5
By: Thomas Hannan
There is music to soothe the heart, engage the brain and move the hips. Erase Errata make music for the limbs, an attempt to deal with an incurable musical twitch. Such is its messy and disjointed character, for a review to express its nature properly it would have to be written with full. stops. after. every. word. But that would get a little tedious. It's a wonder Erase Errata don't.
This all-girl Californian quartet are in second album territory now, but if you've missed the start, do not fret. Those kind noise-mongers at Blast First records are reissuing their first album, 'Other Animals' (****) on the same day that its follow up 'At Crystal Palace' hits the shelves. A charming pair, they're the perfect introduction to a remarkable band.
'Other Animals' sounds like a peculiarly enjoyable exercise in getting 'punk funk' wrong. It's as if they've started trying to emulate other styles but found the discordant noise they've ended up with far more pleasurable, and thus stuck with it. So listening to them play with their creation is a joy, 'Other Animals Are #1' for example, but hearing them perfect it is similarly wonderful. 'Marathon', namely, is brilliant - exactly what would happen if Karen*O and Angus/Liars gave birth to some filthy funk offspring and handed it a trumpet.
At no point in either of the albums is there any middle to the production, the bass often used like a guitar, and guitar always treated like an injection-needle. Drums are left to the world of their own, Bianca Sparta striking at will whilst vocalist/trumpeter Jenny Hoyston delivers what are very often spoken-word ramblings with the occasional high-pitched bark thrown in for good measure.
'At Crystal Palace' (****) begins exactly where 'Other Animals' left off - with the sound of spasmodic guitars signalling both the end of all normality and the beginning of a new order. In fact, it never actually takes itself that seriously, still remaining as cute and quirky as they come. True, it's hardly a giant leap from their last album, but when starting from such a radical blueprint even variations on your innovative theme can provide delight. And what delight there is - the insanely danceable likes of 'Ca. Viewing' or 'The White Horse Is Bucking' highlights of the uppermost kind.
If you've ever been disappointed in an act becoming more polished as their career develops, prepare to fall in love. Erase Errata show no signs of their jagged edges ever turning 'round, rest assured the uneasy rhythms of a brilliant 'Go To Sleep' or ridiculously enjoyable 'Surprize, It's Easter' will never turn into considered ballads.
And because they make so much more sense when viewed as a whole, plus the fact that both criminally short albums combined clock in at the time of one average full-length, it's a safe bet that if one Erase Errata record takes your fancy, you won't be disappointed in the other. If there is a superior LP though, it probably reigns in 'At Crystal Palace' - even if similar to previous work, a much fuller realisation and development of the dance-noise-terror they've made their own.
For moments that stir the soul, this lot provide not the place to come. But in reverence of their bravery and out of sheer curiosity, they deserve at least a peek. Just don't visit expecting them to change - Erase Errata stick their fingers in their ears shouting 'we can't hear you!' when anyone around them tries to recite the rules.
Artists in this article: Erase Errata
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