Liars - Drum's Not Dead (Mute)
5/5
By: Thomas Hannan
They do it this way, they offer, because it's easier to make a noise than it is to make a song. But a few days with 'Drums Not Dead', a few hours with your ears cocked to its sounds and your eyes set on its sights, however long it takes for you to appreciate its intricacies, the time spent on making every little bit of this noise sound perfect, and you'll realise just how difficult Liars must find writing songs.
Nothing about this is easy. They might at times sound deliberately nonchalant, half asleep or, to an uninitiated ear, as if they're just pissing about, but easy this isn't, neither to listen to nor to construct. Studied, matchless and painstakingly planned, 'Drums Not Dead' was meant to be about getting back to basics, trying something a little more traditional than their last outing, the witch obsessed concept album 'They Were Wrong, So We Drowned'. But, probably because they find writing proper ones impossible, they didn't manage to get back to the fundamentals of song writing at all. Instead, where we are is at the beginning of everything, the primal beat that underpins the workings of the earth. Somewhere on the accompanying DVD should be film of God spinning this at the big bang.
It's as if they're ticking them off one by one. Dance-punk? Check. Nervy occult rock? Been there, done that, would have bought a T-shirt but they only had cloaks and brooms. Now, the focus is inwards, a rhythmic monster of a piece revolving around the incessant, ballsy beat demon that is the character of Drum and his antithesis, the anxious screechings and self doubt of Mt. Heart Attack. Everything revolves around these two fellas. When something happens that sounds decidedly like something before, this is why. One of them has reared their head again. The sound is of a dialogue between the two that exits in the minds of Liars, put on to a record.
And... a DVD too. Three films, each made to accompany the album for its entire running time, it's as important to the feeling of the package (and that's what 'Drums Not Dead' is, not wholly an album, not wholly a film, but a marvellous package) as the music it's made to soundtrack. Amusing, disturbing, at times plain dull, they can be as difficult to watch as the music is to listen to. But this visual experience is as rewarding as the eventual love you will feel for every beat on the CD. Even when you spend nigh on an hour watching a snail eating a piece of cucumber, such is singer Angus Andrew's visual representation what 'Drums Not Dead' means to him, you feel at least pleased to be let in on the mindset of its creators.
It's proof that everyone, bar none, should be in a band. I don't want to hear you moan about how you can't write songs or play an instrument. Neither, really, can these guys. But if they're hitting something, they're doing it with all their might. If they're plucking away at one single note for four minutes, they make damn certain that it's a really good note to pluck. The idea is fantastic, the execution all about passion. Be inspired.
Artists in this article: Liars
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