Thr!!!ler… You w!!! dance
Review: !!! – THR!!!ER
Published on May 2nd, 2013 | Jonny Abrams
Okay, we couldn’t help but try to think of future album titles for !!!.
*Ahem*:
!!!matic
!!! Communications
License to !!!
Jagged Little P!!!
Dressed to K!!!
P!!!s ‘n’ Thr!!!s and Bellyaches
Use Your !!!usion
Maybe they could change their name to Cypress H!!!, K!!!switch Engage, W!!! Young or W!!!.!.am, and perform covers of “Purple P!!!s” (or the chart-friendlier “Purple H!!!s”) and “K!!! all Hippies”. Okay, we’ll get on with the review now.
This Sacramento lot’s fifth album is the second instance in just a few weeks, after Phoenix’s new one, of what we like to call a ‘superior indie disco record’, insomuch as you could imagine it playing at one but it doesn’t make you want to start burning things out of irritation.
Au bloody contraire: they still sound thrillingly unhinged, at once ‘cartooning up’ their cosmic disco-funk and guiding it into ever so slightly poppier waters. “Even When the Water’s Cold” is two ace tunes in one, going on to resemble Franz Ferdinand covering “Another Brick in the Wall” before making way for the Daft Punk meets Ween meets Underworld of “Get That Rhythm Right”, also with the very occasional flash of old school hip-hop about it.
The treats keep on coming: the tripped-out house of “Slyd”, the big fizzy synth bass let fly on “One Girl / One Boy”, the call and response hip-hop breakdown on the brilliantly addled “Californiyeah” (Gomez meets LCD Soundsystem meets Talking Heads, since you ask)…and “Fine Fine Fine” sounds quite unexpectedly like a cross between Pavement and Pulp.
“Except Death” leads menace into funk into menacing funk/funky menace, “Careful” fizzes and crackles, and it’s all brought to a triumphant close by the scuzzy psych-funk groove of “Station (Meet Me At The)”, with its wibbly electric piano and commanding chanty vocals. THR!!!ER sees !!! consolidating their niche: their songs aren’t odysseys, they aren’t particularly climactic of dynamic, but they’ll encase and immerse you in a succession of good sonic places to be.
Rocksucker says: Three and a Half Quails out of Five!
THR!!!ER is out now on Warp.
You can buy Thr!!!er on iTunes or on Amazon.
For more information, please visit the official !!! website.
About the Author
Jonny Abrams Editor of Rocksucker and the website's founder, Jonny is passionate about the music he listens to, both good and bad, as well as interviewing his favourite musicians.
