Shooting at Unarmed Men - Triptych (Too Pure)
4/5
By: Charlie Potter
The opening bars of this album give a really bad impression of the way the Triptych is going to pan out. It sounds like a horrible sleaze rock riff that the band will not be able to shake off, but from there on in the record proves itself to be quite the opposite; a very human and sensitive affair. Of course, being the project of the ex-bass player for Mclusky, it's carried out in a very energetic, anger filled, hard rock way - but it is a human album none the less.
This really for me encapsulates a divide between two types of heavy music. Firstly, there is heavy music that pounds away at you in a man machine, Arnold Schwarzenager sort of way, and secondly there are bands with a youthful energy and excitement to their heaviness. Both forms are great and perfectly valid, and both can be as heavy as each other. But they are fundamentally different.
There's a very bittersweet feeling around Triptych, considering it's a solo effort from an ex-band member of a band that I would rather hadn't broken up (Mclusky), and just to rub salt in the wound, it's also one of the final releases on the brilliant Too Pure imprint.
But all is not lost. After seeing other ex-Mcluskiers Future of the Left the other day and listening to this album, I have to agree with the press release on this one, it really is like getting two bands for the price of one. With three Shooting at Unarmed Men albums and a Future of the Left LP too, between them the boys have pretty much equalled the Mclusky output in terms of volume, and although this album is no The Difference Between Me And You Is That I'm Not On Fire, both bands seem to be heading in the right direction.
On the other hand, the Too Pure situation is terrible. Even though the bands are getting devoured by 4AD, who I'm sure will do a fantastic job as they do with all their other bands, some people along the way are presumably out of a job, people that have delivered one of the best bands to come out of this country in the last ten years in Mclusky, a band who had an ethic that seems to be unfortunately other wise missing in this current climate - and that's before we consider any of the other bands on their formidable roster.
But back to the record in hand. Yeah, some bits on this Trilogy are very questionable, and perhaps a little embarrassing even, but they are usually quickly remedied with a bit of good riffage (or just a good riff if you are trying to escape the age of the 'idge'). It's an album of largely simple rock songs but it goes in many other directions too, such as in the closer 'The Fortune of Regret' which skilfully deals a blow of heartfelt acoustic strumming without sounding tacky. It does build into a rock riff, but this doesn't taint the achievement of the dynamic. 'Pre-seated' is another good example of a track that successfully explores greener pastures than the three chord rock barrage, this time with a sort of creepy plod. The least successful of their noodlings is probably 'Fool-Proof Plan For Successful Living' which is their attempt at a crusty soundscape. I've no problem with crusty soundscapes, and it's not even that bad a track, it just sounds very much like it's here for the sake of it.
The only bands than can make simple fun rock songs work are bands that have written loads of simple rock songs, something that's the case mainly because it is only once you have written loads of songs that you can learn to throw them away. Not only this, but you become more comfortable with the idea of starting from scratch. You can come from a new angle without having to over labour the idea, and this is why it is not easy to do this well. Goodness knows there are tons of bands that knock out simple rock songs, but their albums are boring because the variation between the songs is a sort of façade, the variation is there for the wrong reason.
There are obvious pitfalls with knocking out quick rock, but overall albums like Triptych prove there is a lot to be said for it. For many bands it is a case of learning to walk before you can run. If your first album is a success as your magnum opus, where are you going to go from there? Triptych, more than anything else, is a great document of the sort of fun you can miss out on if you take yourself too seriously too soon.
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