No-Age - Snare's Like a Haircut - Drag City - Out January 26th 2018
A quick check on this L.A. duo's recording history might reveal enough information as to their musical bent. A short spell at Fat Cat, then Sub-Pop for six years and now this first punt through Drag City suggests the band has previously set its sites on fuzzy, angsty rock with the occasional experimental arrangement and requisite attitude.
There remains an element of lo-fi DIY about this fifth album, their first since 2013's An Object (which they designed and packaged themselves from scratch) - opening track Cruise Control aptly grinds into gear and sustains proto-punk momentum for its entire three and a half minutes while the marginally more laid-back Send Me bears the melodic hallmarks of MC5, The Vaselines, label-mates Purling Hiss and, natch, the Velvets.
The album's title-track is blessed with a fitting moniker and this is where the pair's propensity for experimentation enters the fray. Snares Like a Haircut is all backwards and distorted psychedelia with other-worldly 'snipping' and 'cutting' percussion and ambient drones straight from the bunker. And when No Age aren't putting their songs through the mangler, they're wigging out with the likes of Drippy and Soft Collar Fad. For a duo, they sure can produce a portentous multi-layered blizzard of noise.
7/10
There remains an element of lo-fi DIY about this fifth album, their first since 2013's An Object (which they designed and packaged themselves from scratch) - opening track Cruise Control aptly grinds into gear and sustains proto-punk momentum for its entire three and a half minutes while the marginally more laid-back Send Me bears the melodic hallmarks of MC5, The Vaselines, label-mates Purling Hiss and, natch, the Velvets.
The album's title-track is blessed with a fitting moniker and this is where the pair's propensity for experimentation enters the fray. Snares Like a Haircut is all backwards and distorted psychedelia with other-worldly 'snipping' and 'cutting' percussion and ambient drones straight from the bunker. And when No Age aren't putting their songs through the mangler, they're wigging out with the likes of Drippy and Soft Collar Fad. For a duo, they sure can produce a portentous multi-layered blizzard of noise.
7/10