BASS DRUM OF DEATH

BASS DRUM OF DEATH (Innovative Leisure)

15/20

“All of my friends, they’re all gone” snarl Bass Drum Of Death on Fine Lines, a line that sums up the band’s slacker garage rock perfectly. On their second, self-titled record the band lean away from the ferocious punk on their first LP, making the transition to a more garage and grunge-based sound, the adolescent cynicism and disillusionment inherent to the genres firmly intact. On Fine Lines, as well as Such A Bore and Bad Reputation, the band make a firm declaration never to do anything firmly again, the tracks messy, incoherent and completely exhilarating. The entire record is laden with fuzz and feedback, the drums barely holding things together as they crash relentlessly through the tracks. This hardly matters, as the songs themselves are concise and well structured, snarling and bratty but concise and effective throughout. Ramshackle to the point of derelict, Bass Drum Of Death is nonetheless a fine album – one that puts them on a similar yellowing, dusty playing field as their contemporaries The Black Lips, Wavves and Thee Oh Sees. A riotous, smash-and-grab of a record.

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Words: Jon Clark