The anarchist Emma Goldman once observed that ‘crime is naught but misdirected energy.’ We can be thankful, however, that this bunch of Belgians who gave themselves the moniker ‘White Circle Crime Club’ have projected their energies not into crime (at least as far as I know) but into producing a sort of garagey rock music.
White Circle Crime Club – Pictures of Stares
http://www.whitecirclecrimeclub.com/ www.myspace.com/whitecirclecrimeclub
The anarchist Emma Goldman once observed that ‘crime is naught but misdirected energy.’ We can be thankful, however, that this bunch of Belgians who gave themselves the moniker ‘White Circle Crime Club’ have projected their energies not into crime (at least as far as I know) but into producing a sort of garagey rock music. Opener The Islanders is indicative of what they do best on this album – densely layered squally guitars and drums and double-tracked vocals give way halfway through to a brief Hammond organ interlude before swinging back into the hurricane intensity. Along with second track Up The Curtain.
Whether or not the title of I Got No Wave deliberately alludes to that particularly hard-to-define genre of music from ‘70s New York, the album does have elements of ‘No Wave’ in it. Especially the driving rhythms and a strong emphasize on the texture of the songs. In amongst the noise are a couple of pieces of sonic exploration, such as Mary.
Tight and coherently structured, this is a very fine record. Hopefully the next time someone asserts that you can’t name more than, say, five famous Belgians (the type of thing that gets our Flemish brethren in a bit of a tizzy) you could name these lads and would at least get a nod of recognition.
Words: Rover