In our book, Captain Ahab was best known for the guy rolling around in his own sweat wearing only blue underwear, backed by the other guy doing vicious synth pop beats, but these new tracks are ambitious and weird and doing their damndest to open new sonic avenues for all those with ears.
First to leak out of the gate is “Acting Hard”, which starts the album on what sounds like the inevitable skewed-hip hop production ambitions of west coasters like Hawney Troof, until monkish chants creep into the mix, then goth beats, then there's the rap sample again.
“Acting Hard” appears on The End of Irony, out April 6 on Deathbomb Arc. Their lengthy press release is fun, and stakes their claim at some “posts” for their music, namely post-ironic, but also post-modern, without saying it. Excerpt:
Do you love Powermetal even though it is just for thirtysomething LARPers? Well, good for you! Shout it to the sky! Do you like shaking your ass to some Electro-Clash even though your neighbor scoffs because you forgot it’s called Nu-Rave now. Well fuck names! Do you want to cuddle in the morning sunlight to some 70’s Soft Rock, but your sweetie-pie thinks you’re making fun of him/her? Dude, making love is awesome, and sometimes being sappy isn’t a bad thing! Captain Ahab knows how you feel. They love all these criminalized sounds and many more, and they combine them in a way that irony would never permit. There is serious commitment going on here. Commitment to making epic songs that defy expectation, trends, and any sort of cool-factor. But we’re not talking about some lazy mash-up album, here. They have composed these songs from scratch. The album creates a meticulous and sweeping cosmology that would satisfy even the headiest of 70’s prog heshers. Captain Ahab is fucking committed to freeing your soul! No short cuts on this album. Is that a live guitar player? Yeah, duh! Every band has one of those. So what do you think of this live orchestra then? How about this master sitar player flown out from India to play in a room next to a guy with a modular synthesizer the size of the WOPR. These songs are the real deal, passionate and unafraid. They’re the result of Captain Ahab’s dedication to their audience. If you are ready to be set free, then your lucky day has come. All you need to do is LISTEN!
