Dub Thompson – 9 Songs

It’s abstract like some teen not being able to tell you what time they’re home, or what it is they are listening to; abstraction and avoidance taken to the level of an artform.

It’s abstract like some teen not being able to tell you what time they’re home, or what it is they are listening to; abstraction and avoidance taken to the level of an artform.

http://www.konkurrent.nl http://deadoceans.com

A record without songs and it doesn’t matter. I really like Dub Thompson’s LP, it’s a really tough, fun and often messy listen; full of blurts and yowls and blares and guitar sounds that sound FUN to play (as on Pterodactyls). Maybe the things in 9 Songs, these tracks, these explosions of energy, are like the bits in songs that make songs good, or add a tense or differnt edge. But as I hinted at; 9 Songs, or Epiconyles, or Ash Wednesday (“songs” on 9 Songs) don’t really fulfill the role of being songs. Rather they’re states of mind; thought pieces, very Joycean in that respect. You’ve gotta love the feeling, appreciate the moment and then banish it with as little thought as possible.

So; Dub Thompson’s LP 9 Songs is a sort of cavalcade of nice, song-like noises; for sure Ash Wednesday is a decent enough stab at making a plodding growling work out with some sort of grimy metropolitan underbelly, but it (and the rest) masterfully avoids getting on down to the onerous task of being a song, one you can remember, one youy’ll fancy listening to again.

THING IS, I really do like 9 songs. It’s abstract nature is very appealing. But it’s not abstract like Faust. It’s abstract like some teen not being able to tell you what time they’re home, or what it is they are listening to; abstraction and avoidance taken to the level of an artform. Fun, mind.