MP3: “Throne of Blood (The Jump Off)”
Seattle-based The Dead Science has created a majestic, ornate and soaring collection of postpunk avantpop on this, their third full-length album, and their first for Constellation. Villainaire is a brilliant song cycle driven by layers of Sam Mickens’ vibrato-laden voice, dark lyricism and sterling guitar work. Bassist (acoustic and electric) Jherek Bischoff and drummer Nick Tamburro anchor the tunes with endlessly inventive polyrhythmic suppleness. Together the trio unleashes a truly unique sound, intensely literate in both word and sound, with a controlled and commanding fury.
The songs on Villainaire range from epic orchestral pop to sinister jazz-rock to weary, soul-bleached balladry. Sam Mickens writes about “moral pragmatism and experimental moral nihilism, black-out drunkenness and its psychic and emotional repercussions, and the continuum of baroque fantasy and stark reality” – all delivered with inimitable, seductive, and at times disturbing operatics. Fans of
Shudder To Think, Scott Walker, Deerhoof, Xiu Xiu, Blonde Redhead and/or US Maple should find deep and abiding pleasure in Villainaire.
Album opener “Throne Of Blood (The Jump Off)” indeed jumps out of the gate, with pumping bass and drum work, interwoven vocals and fantastic staccato syncopation – with a lovely deconstructed bridge featuring a brief modernist string arrangement. The song encapsulates many of the elements and influences that shape the rest of the album’s compositions. “The Dancing Destroyer” explodes with a pummeling time signature and furious drum work, driving towards some awesome horn stabs and briefly yielding to a cascading interlude of waterfall guitar chords before reprising the madness. “Make Mine Marvel” is a relentless little
pop masterpiece highlighted by a swirling string arrangement. “Monster Island Czars” opens with zithery guitar downstrokes set against a ferocious bowed contrabass, decomposing into a sort of free-jazz-meets-house bridge, followed by some beautifully fried lead guitar in damaged call-and-response with brass and strings – all in the first two minutes; a twisted, harmonised vocal clearing ensues, before the lead guitar reappears and blazes through a final solo to bring the band slamming back to the finish line. The band provides some respite with the short, tremulous ballad “Lamentable”which closes Side One. We’ll spare you track-by-track descriptions of Side Two, except to say that the band stretches out a little more, with a couple of dark slowdances lending the album’s second half a more introspective but no less intense vibe.
The record’s content is also informed by oblique and obsessive resonances with figures real (Tookie Williams, Robert Blake) fictional (Rocky Balboa, David Lopan), and somewhere in between (Michael Jackson, the Wu-Tang Clan) that swirled through and amongst these recent years of life and work
Villainaire was superbly recorded and mixed by band member Jherek, and features contributions from a number of guest players, including Shudder To Think’s Criag Wredren and Celebration’s Katrina Ford on additional vocals. The album is available on CD and deluxe 180gLP, in custom-printed jackets of white and gold ink on heavy black artstock paper; the LP version is screen-printed by hand.
Villainaire (Constellation)
Street Date: Sept. 9, 2008
1.Throne of Blood (The Jump Off)
2.The Dancing Destroyer
3.Make Mine Marvel
4.Monster Island Czars
5.Lamentable
6.Death Duel Productions
7.Wife You
8.Holliston
9.Black Lane
10.Sword Cane
11.Clemency
THE DEAD SCIENCE LINKS:
Label site: www.cstrecords.com
Myspace: www.myspace.com/thedeadscience