COURSE OVER GROUND - same

(CD, Moonlee)

Course Over Ground or COG really have everything I want from a cool guitarband. Ever since I first happened onto bands like Slint, June of 44, Fugazi and then especially Shellac I am at a loss as how to call this kind of great dynamic, noisy but also melodic, grooving, emotional,distorted rock music. If I wrote rockband you’d imagine a band dressed in leather and denim heavily into ACDC, Led Zeppelin and Kyuss. If I wrote noiserock you’d expect Helmet or The Cows (or even the Deftones…). I don’t even want to think about what would come to your mind if I wrote down emotional or emo-core, because of what has become of the term ever since it has been first attributed to Fugazi back in 1990 or earlier. Aw, I’ll leave it at that. I have ranted enough about the stupidity of genre-fying music in other places, and still I haven’t found a good way out. I’ll tell you what Course Over Ground is:

Course Over Ground are a fucking great band from Croatia. They are three people in the basic rock-band formation and they play an electrifying mix of harsh guitar riffs, screaming and kicking and on the other hand groovy alternative rock beats. They have more dynamic tension than your personal trainer and they give more power than the new Toyota Tacoma. The production on their self titled album, which is their third release after two demos, is crisp, clean and crackling with energy. It is the basic idea of if you can’t have everything then strip it down to the basics and record in the purity of what is there. Minimize overdubs as much as possible and let the band sound like it really sounds. Even if the band does not know it at the time. I don’t think these guys would be angry if I added that this is also the basic principle of Steve Albini’s work approach.

Therefore the guitars change between crushingly distorted and full chorus, the bass is full and round and thick as the fields in July, the drums are deep with a lot of treble. It is an encompassing album that will grab you and shake you. They’ll pound around on bass and drums for some time, twiddle this and that, and then take it up again full force. The singer likes to spit out certain phrases and words out of synch but in time like Albini likes to do as well. But most importantly there is passion and self-esteem. Fittingly I see Marlon Brando and James Cagney (and a dinosaur) on the cover. The album runs for almost exactly half an hour, which is just the perfect amount of time to fall for this band. Shortening, densifying, compacting is a lot better than endlessly drawing out songs or jams. Five minutes of boring jams or improvisation at the end of a CD can spoil an hour of enjoyable music that was before, because you suddenly realize that here is a band that can’t focus. Course Over Ground are able to focus. Actually, they target like a heavy bomber.

I get a warm feeling around my heart if I think about all the great bands that are still around almost everywhere. Despite the downfall of the music industry, despite file sharing and downloading, the will to grap drums, bass and guitars to form a band, then get on a stage to rock and move people, is obviously still as strong as ever. Economically it might be a dead end, but for the mind and the development of the minds of people, musicians as well as listeners, this is a very important, formative stage. There is still Gone Bald and Valina, both around for over a dozen years now, working in their field of famousness, if you could call it that. Moonlee Records has really evolved into a full pond of great bands (Lunar, Don't mess with Texas, Analena, et al). Of course, for every band that is still around, there are a hundred that have broken up. Nevertheless, on the one hand for every band that has broken up a new one will formsomewhere. It is like a natural law. On the other hand, for every person in a band that has once made and distributed a record and played shows, this will always remain an important part of their life. Remember, “anyone who ever had a heart, would not turn around and break it / anyone who ever played a part, would not turn and fake it.” And this here is straight from the heart, pure and personal.
www.goodenoughforyou.at
08/2007