ANALENA - inconstantinopolis
(CD/LP/download, moonlee)
“begin the countdown / start
the engine now.” It is good to hear that there are still bands out there
doing it the old fashioned way and sounding fully energetic and feeling
fine. Nowadays every scrummy little gang of school-avoiders can take their
instruments and basic musical skills to their desktop computer in some
buddies living room and churn out a record that sounds decent and
professionally polished. Ten or fifteen years ago this would have been a
miracle, but nowadays it is more than common and so there are too many
fucking bands around that all want to sound like Linkin Park or any other
fucking pre-fabricated pseudo-alternative rock band. Thanks to god (or
whatever you believe in or chose to not believe in) there are still real DIY
bands out there, bands that like to tour and play for the heck of it and see
making songs as a common endeavour of a gang of likeminded individuals. And
singers that scream their heart out.
Analena is different, both in
musical style and working ethics to a lot of wannabe bands and punkrockers.
First the aesthetics: they play a partly square, partly harmonic kind of
punkrock that is at the same time noisy as it is melodic. There are no happy
go lucky melodies on here, but there are background chorus vocals that
adjust themselves neatly to the screamed female vocals in the front.
Guitars, bass and drums play all kinds of cubic riffs and only at some times
boild down to straight rocking and let it roll. All of this means nothing
else than that the songs need some time to get accustomed to, but also that
it is not at all hard. They are unique and rewarding in that sense. Moreover
there is vigour, energy and spite in their songs that have an impact on the
listener as well. Someone a long time ago called hardcore punkrock the
biggest source of energy on this planet, and he was damn right.
The band’s songwriting and
recording vision is not at all superficial or easily described. Mostly they
are hard to pin down. A song like “off with my head” starts with a weird
meter and then falls into a straight punkrock chord / rhythm structure. And
then something completely else follows. As I said, at first it may sound
akward, but every listen you take to this will put another layer of sense to
it until you realize that it couldn’t have been done any other way. Maybe
that is why the band is compared to so many different other bands
(personally, they remind me most of long disfunct Austrian hardcore band
Those Who Survived The Plague, but that is probably due to the mix of male /
female vocals) and usually regarded as postpunk. In my opinion, any kind of
musical genre label starting with the prefix “post-“ does not make any
sense at all, but who will ever listen to me anyway.
Some words should also be
spent on the working ethics of Analena as they are one of the few remaining
DIY bands in the best and old fashioned sense of the word. They manage their
recordings themselves, their distribution, their concerts, their promotion,
their record label and also their own studio. Well, maybe it is not so much
DIY but the managing of a micro-corporation but since they seem to have
their capitalist goals reduced to re-financing, which is a more than
rational and sensible thing to do, this might also be an example on how the
world should run things economically in the long run. With a multitude of
small and smallest enterprises that constantly help each other out. Hm, I
think I have to ponder that idea a little longer some time.
Summing up, it is good to see
and hear that Analena are still around and going strong doing their thing.
“Inconstantinopolis” is a big step forward musical after their last
album “carbon based”
and the old split record
with Sensual Love. The title track is great and this will
accompany me well into the oncoming winter.
