Death From Above 1979 – You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine
Released in 2004, on Last Gang Records
Oh-Em-Gee, I had to make a new category to fit in this album. Punk, that is. It’s a pity that DFA1979 doesn’t exist any more. They had a short but bright life, full of drama, mistery, headaches, near-lawsuits, a tour with QOTSA and NIN and all that stuff. A rather amazing career.
Calling them the White Stripes of hardcore punk would be not only a bad joke, but also stupid as it is. Yeah, it’s a duo, drums and bass-guitar (sometimes synth). And I love it when drummers sing, it’s just so… Umm, don’t know what’s it like. It’s funny how they sit there, concentrating on the beats. They aren’t sitting, to be precise, cause the poor souls have to be in a strange half-standing position most of the times to fulfil all their functions. Respect.
DFA1979 is heavy. No surprises there: beneath the heavy layer of distortion, there’s a fookin bass guitar. Instant headache. It could be compared to Lightning Bolt, as far as sound-texture is concerned. But DFA1979 proves to be surprisingly melodic. Melodic? Yeah, sorta, melodic. The bass riffs are very catchy, the drumming tight and dancey. Sometimes they are classified as dance-punk and noise-funk and things like that…
The lyrics might be the weak point. Don’t like them that much. So that’s a minus. Not a big one. Actually, it goes well with the music. Oh, and I love the design, pink and elephantesque.
~ Final score: 8,1/10
Judgement time it was. Massive headaches are the result of too much listening last night (got it for X-mas [hehh, I know, quite early...] from my friends, thank you guys!!), and a massive amount of pity that I can’t see them live.
One thing: maybe it’s not bad that they split up. I don’t think a next album would have been this cool without a radical sonic makeover.
