This January, Gay City News reviews the latest albums from electronic punk duo Sleaford Mods — Andrew Fearn, who plays all instruments, is gay — and gay producer The Soft Pink Truth, a member of the duo Matmos.
Sleaford Mods | “The Demise of Planet X” | Rough Trade | Jan. 16th
Just in case you thought Sleaford Mods frontman Jason Williamson had mellowed with age, “The Good Life” lashes out with anger at the band’s imitators. Foaming with rage, he sees clones and phantoms everywhere. Without naming names, his disses are passionate enough that they must have real targets.
Listen closer, and the picture becomes more blurry. The song’s two guest singers provide alternate perspectives. Big Special turns in a melodic chorus, singing “you know the good life’s better for me.” But Gwendoline Christie makes Williamson’s anger at other musicians feel petty. She lashes out without such a clear target, turning her rage inward: “I cry like a f**kin’ child…like everyone else, I think there’s only pain in me.” The good life looks impossibly far away.
Thirteen albums in, you know exactly what you’re getting from Sleaford Mods. Williamson shouts four letter word-laced acid in all directions. This consistency can feel cursed. Even as their popularity has grown, Fearn’s production remains thin. “The Unwrap” may as well have been recorded on an electric organ from the ‘60s. The music works with just a few elements: a bassline, a melody performed on a tinny synthesizer and a beat. Although Williamson’s voice and lyrics dominate, small touches, like the violin on “Double Diamond,” leaven the minimalist approach, as do the voices of other singers, particularly women.
“The Demise of Planet X” never returns to the power of “The Good Life.” The title track just gets unpleasant. Anger seems less righteous when it’s so often aimed at rival musicians. The limits of Williamson’s unceasing bitterness and brash voice make themselves audible by the end.
The Soft Pink Truth | “Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?” | Thrill Jockey | Jan. 30th
In the midst of climate change and the worldwide rise of fascism, titling your album “Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?” has to be a bitterly ironic joke, right? Yes and no. Producer Drew Daniel, who records as the Soft Pink Truth, explained his rationale in a video. The title refers to satisfaction with his job as a professor and his marriage to Matmos partner M. C. Schmidt, combined with the knowledge that life is steadily becoming more difficult.
Matmos’ albums have been structured around heavily altered samples of an object or process. They’ve stretched out the noises of surgery and the hum of a washing machine to transform them into musical instruments. Drew Daniel’s work as the Soft Pink Truth has been no less conceptual. He’s turned hardcore punk and black metal into electronic music, challenging their macho tendencies. His video for his cover of Venom’s “Black Metal” takes metal musicians’ corpsepaint and occult imagery into a form of drag. Although he began writing “Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?” as an electronic pop album, it shifted into orchestral, even classical, music.
“Mere Survival Is Not Enough” begins with a slow orchestral swell, evolving into baroque harpsichord music. Keyboards echo as though they were hanging in the air. Strings, although warped enough to sound plastic, enter next. Bird calls intrude at the very end. Indeed, “Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?” places acoustic instruments against more indistinct sounds.
“Time Inside the Violet” starts with slow piano notes, accompanied by a violin, overdubbed dozens of times, that suggests someone rubbing a balloon. The piano resonates against a vast ocean of lingering drones. When the strings return, they take “Time Inside the Violet” to a far more agitated place. Every song shifts mood and timbre, often more than once. “Phrygian Ganymede” compresses a symphony into 10 minutes, while the more cheerful, percussion-heavy “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” conjures up a passing carnival.
As much as any directly political theme, “Can Such Delightful Times Go On Forever?” reflects the passage of aging. Song titles like “And By And By A Cloud Takes All Away” and “Time Inside the Violet” nod to the inevitability of mortality. “L’Esprit de L’Escalier” is a French phrase that describes coming up with a perfect comeback only after the moment to deliver it has ended. The enormity of space can be heard within these songs: “Phrygian Ganymede” combines the names of a musical scale and Jupiter’s largest moon. The arrangements and production set piano, violin, and harp against an infinite background. The album notates the emotions of an anxious middle age, with every bit of joy careening into a darker mood.
