39 clocksThis retrospective collection of recordings, created between 1981 and 1987, drips with attitude from the first note. The influence of New York precursors such as The Velvet Underground and Suicide on this duo from Hannover are clear enough, but the commitment and aggression of the performances channel the recycled riffs and poses into something new. 'Fast Cars' is built around a Velvets-style guitar line with a vocal that manages somehow to sound both numbed and angry simultaneously. These songs are stripped bare of any sheen or taint of 'professionalism', instead they tap into the kind of energy that made rock and roll so exciting when it emerged in the 1950s: the kind of crazed, horny and desperate posing that fired up Little Richard and later The Cramps. It would be easy for this kind of music to slip into pastiche or irony, but the way 39 Clocks throw themselves onto these performances it is impossible to hear them as anything but deadly serious, even when they sound like they are crawling around the studio throwing stuff at imaginary iguanas. The most atonal and demented sounds here are as far from dull, academic 'experimentation' as it's possible to get even while cardboard cut outs of Stravinsky and Damo Suzuki cast distorted shadows and Charlemagne Palestine swings from the lampshade clutching a giant glass of brandy. The music here is abrasive, but never unapproachable, Christian Henjes and Juergen Gleue never forget the power of a study hook to drag an unsuspecting listener through all manner of strange and intimidating foliage. This is the sort of disc that wears leather, chews gum and writes something obscene on the inside of your stereo, grab it while you can. -- nick ilott
:: 39 Clocks/Zoned - De Stijl/Cargo.
