Maniacal psych-tronica trio gives folk-music a demonic shot in the arse
Out 25th
March 2013
8/10
Never judge an album
by its opening 15-minute drone, goes the old saying. Well actually, the
cheekily-titled Buff As Fuck certainly is worth pondering over - the
laptop-wielding trio’s second album is exactly as described, if not quite as
you’d imagine. Whilst its moniker might sit more comfortably on the sleeve of
some raggedy-ass rapper toting a gun and gripping his crotch, Transept’s
indulgences lie in psych-electronica that, when performed live, may result in
megahertz psychosis.
That opening cadenza
is a test of endurance, both for the listener and the machinery. Like some monolithic
funereal raga for the Mayan apocalypse, what sounds at first like Spaceman 3
being force-fed into a jet-engine is actually the work of a few PCs trembling
and resonating like crazed chanting acid-heads on a trip, with a deathly ‘clunk’
at regular intervals. It’s bloody nuts and I love it.
And Transept don’t stop
there. Taking Norfolk’s mystical and mythical flatlands as inspiration, the
threesome make music that wouldn’t sound out of place on The Wicker Man or an episode
of Midsomer Murders, if it was located in the bleak Fenlands, rather than
chocolate-box Cotswolds country. I’d like to see Barnaby solve any murder with
this unworldly racket going on behind him.
If early Floyd gave
birth to Fennesz and Smog in a drug-haze, it might be sound-tracked by Let Aos
Go or Muscle Beach, the latter of which carries on from where the opener
Happysburgh left off. Sheer artificially-inseminated electronic brutality has
rarely sounded so engaging, especially when paired with militaristic glitch drum-beats and
flangers on stun.
All of which leads into the final tune. Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel is
already a doleful wallow in lachrymose territory, without being translated into
a fearful Flaming Lips-esque drama – trust Transept to upset you all over
again. Inspired.
By turns meditative
and un-nerving, Buff as Fuck is a blast.Comes in a frosted clear vinyl format as well!