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Giddy
Motors' debut lp Make it Pop which was recorded by Steve Albini and
released in 2002 is one of the good albums I wanted to review but I hadn’t had
time enough to do so. The release of this Magmanic ep enables me to make
it up… (to whom ? Myself I suppose).
‘Magmanic
‘is one of the best song on the album, it opens both the album and the ep. It
takes several directions, bewildering the listener in a good way. Its title is
probably a reference to the 70’s French band Magma (which still lives on
today) because of its built-up tension and its various parts that result in a
ragged idiosyncratic structure in the end. Despite its chaotic aspect, it
remains very attractive probably because of the merging of rhythmically
complicated passages with heavy ones.
The
guitar sound is fierce and urgent, the guitar riffs are often staccato and the
particularly powerful rhythmic section à la Shellac conveys a great sense of
energy. The latter regularly recalls the defunct Jesus Lizard as well while the
singer is half-way between Steve Albini (Shellac) and David Yow, nods in the
direction of the defunct Refused (screeching on ‘Magmanic’ for example) and
sometimes even verges on Mark E Smith’s or Johnny Rotten’s particular style
because of the English rant.
The
b-sides are both violent bits of ragged hardcore: ‘Eisbar’ is a great
mid-tempo hardcore song à la Jesus Lizard (circa Down & Shot) in
which the German lyrics reinforce the heavy atmosphere. It is followed by an
alternate version of an lp song called ‘Bottle opener’ which is here
re-titled ‘Tight sauce’. The band has jettisoned the psychedelic aspect of
the song to convey a punk aspect, playing it faster and meaner than on the
album. This ep ends with a hidden cover song of a traditional German number
(entitled ‘Hanschen Klein’ according to the biography). It is superfluous
but amusing.
A
few words about the album:
Giddy
Motors’ songs are energetic, urgent and deconstructed in a sort of Fantômas
way (‘Magmanic’, ‘Sassy’, ‘Whirled by Curses’ whose astonishing
beginning can make you think of Slint; ‘Hit Cap’ merges jazz passages with
heavy ones). Some calmer songs convey an impressively unhealthy atmosphere. 'Cranium
Crux' is another song having a ragged structure, it begins with a guitar line
reminiscent of Fugazi (End Hits) and its atmosphere is so shabby that it
evokes slow heavy unhealthy songs by Daisy Chainsaw and by The Jesus Lizard once
again. The American band’s ghost is also dangerously loitering around ‘Dog
Hands’ (n°6 on the album). Because of the bands which the album makes
me think of, I’m far from being surprised when I regularly read that Giddy
Motors enjoys a great live reputation.
-SEB WOOd
/feb 1st 2003/