“Kill People”, with its chorus of screeching men and women shouting just that, might recall the chaos of Excepter's live act, but the opening eighth-note synth bass buzzing over the snare machine sounds like it's coming from a well-constructed dungeon several levels below the one where Bauhaus plays in The Hunger:
It also goes farther than brothers-in-digital-mutilation Black Dice in reigning in a classically chaotic milieu of electronic intricacies by offering a lilting half-time drum track that stomps steadily through almost the entire five minutes, bass synth lines faithfully plodding in tow at the same bpm. Is this a nod towards dance music? A step towards accessibility? Either way, this is a good track, but a listen to the whole album sheds more light on the group's current trajectory, and while it isn't exactly an easy going affair, it also doesn't seem quite as fixated on alienating you into a fetal position. Is this a good thing? Your call.
Cheers to Excepter, also, for the best press release of the year. (We're calling this one early.) Note the bottom tier of the pyramid, occupied by “menial tasks, viral marketing, copywriting, weblogging, etc.” If it isn't immediately obvious to you, the press release is to announce their upcoming LP, Debt Dept., out on Paw Tracks on March 25.
