Words - Suzy Sims
Editor - Rob Ball
(c) mINtSOUTH.com
You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons – Contact High
So I was walking in the forest one day, as one does. Then a magical pixie offered me a mysterious CD full of demons. “This will blow your mind,” she said. “I’ll be the judge of that,” I thought to myself.
This was a true story. Except perhaps it was more of an office than a forest. And the pixie is actually the girl who sits behind me. I’m not sure if she is magical.
Recorded in the creative musical hive that is Nursling, ‘Contact High’ is the third full length release by Portsmouth’s You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons. They’ve been releasing music for around six years and describe their sound as ‘psych / drone’ which is pretty correct – there’s an otherworldly, hallucinogenic feel to it and the band love to jam and crash away to themselves.
Starting with a good thirty seconds of feedback, ‘Contact High’ stamps its menacing authority repeatedly into your head. Controlled ferocity bubbles about my ears snarling and whining. My first opinion was that the guitarist should not have been given control of the mixing desk because every other sound is muffled below the fuzzy orgasms of the electric guitar and the crash of the ride. However as it goes on your ears begin to attune to the other sounds and melodies present.
‘Nervous / Alive’ has a surprisingly catchy melody before it descends into clouds and echoes. ‘Out Of Focus’ starts mournfully and is basically two minutes of the band jamming to themselves, the sort of thing it’s fun to do but which can signal a break for the audience to nip off the to bar; luckily here it blends well to become part of ‘Jammin’ On The 13th Floor’, one of the quieter points on the album. ’Calmer’ isn’t the right word at all – it’s not a relaxed tune as there is still a lot of underlying tension to the music.
They’ve all gone a bit wordy with a few song titles (‘The Recidivist’ and ‘Prismatic Reflections’) which makes me fear a Scrabble contest with the band because I would lose quite badly, by approximately seven million points.
The heavy fuzz of Demons suggests they’d be quite a powerful live force although the CD doesn’t quite get that across and I struggled to connect to the sanitised, recorded version. The vocals actually remind me of the Stone Roses and that ‘don’t care’ attitude of the Madchester scene. Despite the frustrated anger in the music it sounds like the songs have been tamed, although they could still snap at your fingers and need to be kept on a leash. Highlights for me are ‘Nervous/Alive’ and ‘The Recidivist’.
‘Prismatic Reflections’ is the band’s magnum opus; their ‘Paranoid Android’, their ‘Revolution 9’. It’s eighteen minutes worth of Last Chance Saloon harmonica, dusty stamping and sexy wah guitar, then the next section is a menacing buzz, leading into disturbing feedback and a whirlwind of noise before eventually braking to a finish. When it came to an end, I was suddenly aware that the real world sounded strangely quiet.
If you like your music with swaggering stoner qualities and a fuzzy snarl of classic metal, then check out the Demons. It’s a bit heavier than the music I usually choose to listen to, but I enjoyed the ride nevertheless.
No comments:
Post a Comment