DATAFUCKLATENIGHTSHOW – s/t

(CD, self released)

This one is a bit of a surprise. With a name like Datafucklatenightshow I expected some harsh noise, possibly digital, like 1bomb1target, or at least something trashy and spazzed. Which made me shove listening to this CD away from me for days and days, because I need to be in the mood to listen to the harsher stuff to really enjoy it. (Yes, I do enjoy listening to harsher stuff, but don’t think I am talking about Earth now, that is easy listening in comparison to the stuff I am talking about here.) Moreover I had that named stowed away deep inside my brain, so that it never said anything to me, except that it is a name I know somehow. Which means, even though that band was around for quite some time, I never got around to get closer to them. Which in turn already hints at the fact, that this band obviously is no more. They quit this month. Bad luck. So, why still review this CD? Because of surprise #1 – that this is musically not at all what I expected. Which put reviewing off yet some more days, because my expectations might have given me completely wrong impression on this one. But all this circumlocuting of the finest facts and central points is getting us nowhere. Let’s get straight to the core: this is the only postrock band I know that is no post rock band at all - at least not in the regular sense. Moreover, the record is still available here and there so get yourself a second helping.

These three guys from Austria kick it in the traditional powertrio structure. What they kick is the post of postrock out and the drive and energy of rock, especially the mulekicking kind sophisticated noiserock, in. Nevertheless, it is obvious that they like to show off their technical skills on their instruments as well (so there, postrock again) but without letting it get the best of them. Still, it helps them to control tension and impact, which is important, especially in this sort of instrumental hardcore / noiserock / postwhatsoever.There is also an interesting clarity in the music, with every instrument clearly divisible from the others, every note plucked or drum banged recognizable. In some parts this reminds me of the way some Dischord bands in the mid-Nineties tried to keep their act unique (thinking of Hoover or Circus Lupus). Others not so.

All tracks are dense and finely structured, except the last one (later to that one) and they keep it up with a bunch of original ideas. Yeah, being different is another important point here, obviously. Too bad, they wouldn’t keep it up, they could have been the Rush of instrumental noiserock. Of course, they will bind the seams together with some heavy banging after a dose of noodling, but this is the good side of noodling. (I remember being at a concert of some band, where the guitarist played endless solos, and a friend of mine said, that this is kind of sexless, so I had to remind him that wanking is also a kind of sex. Even if Bill Clinton would say different, but who’d ever listen to a saxophone player anyway?)