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Old Time Relijun2012 Popfrenzy/Shock There is something innately sexual about the sound of Old Time Relijun. This may have something to do with the copulating she-beasts depicted on the front cover, or it may find its roots (ha!) in the propulsive and persistently thrusting percussion which, barring four beatless instrumentals, provides an inexorable skeleton for the eight other tracks featured on '2012'. The album has a relentless rhythmic jerkiness to it, suggesting sweaty hip-based encounters in murky swamps, with vocalist Arrington de Dionyso's oral extrapolations adding to this overall sense of slithery distortion by sounding like the bastard offspring of Birthday Party-era Nick Cave, Jon Spencer and Captain Beefheart. There are trace elements of each of these artists' output lurking under the surface of '2012', from the Cave-ish hollering on Your Mama Used To Dance and Reptilian, to the whitewash of distorted blues aesthetic which inhabits much of Beefheart's work. Where Old Time Relijun really make their presence felt however is, perhaps ironically, in the more subdued and stripped back instrumental tracks such as Magnetic Electric, the pulsating jews-harp of Tundra, and the extended invertebrate drone of organ and skronky sax in closing piece The Blood and the Milk. It is in these compositions that the real sense of tension and unease, which is so often hinted at in the other songs, comes to the fore to bask unadulterated by cloying vocals or percussion as the band displays a knack for composing less directly penetrative music. These instrumentals are ultimately what saves '2012' from lapsing into a homogeneous mess; over the course of the album the songs tend to bleed into one another, and these tracks offer not only enjoyable respite from the hip-thrusting but also a hint at where Old Time Relijun's music could develop further.  |
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