FLUID –
new imperial sadism
(10”,
Interstellar Records)
All right, so I made two mistakes right there before I
even started. At first, I wrote “Fluid” and not “Flu.ID” as the
record actually says and as it seems to be important to the band. Probably
because there is some hidden meaning in this kind of lettering (the
identification of influenza virus, or something? Am I close? No?), or
because they don’t want to be mistaken with the Grunge-band that released
a few record about fifteen years ago on Sub Pop and Glitterhouse records, or
probably just because. Next I played this ten inch on the wrong speed. As if
releasing a 10” vinyl record isn’t old fashioned enough. Jeez, nobody
would mistake the two bands anyhow, because the kind of energetic impact and
full power impact Flu.ID (see there, I did it, but it will be the last
time…) manage to kick in and then enhance was never closely achieved by
the old Grunge rockers anyway.
I like this trio especially when they kick it fast and
tight, like on “necromancer”, where they start off like a mixture of
death metal and the Ruins, which actually is not too far apart, if you think
about it, and then a female voice starts screaming and then it is all off
and on top of itself suddenly. Pure sonic pleasure derived from power noise
core. This kind of music was always meant to free people from their everyday
treadmill. From the grey and bleary eyes on the bus, the rainy days moving
back and forth between the small flat and the office space, the brightly yet
inhumanly lit offices and their neon lights turning everything into this
strange computer brown-white-pastiche that all computers come in. (Except
for those Apple-gadgets, I know, I know, but if you fall for those, you are
apt to fall for a lot of other things as well.) In theory, the dischordant,
superficially chaotic structures of the music together with the heaviness
and tightness of the punch it emits, is meant to reap people from their
dreary lives, to kick them out of their numbed and mindless existence and to
open their circuits with a small but heavy overdose of power to the idea
that there is something else out there that is worth living for.
Then these people are meant to start their own bands,
in turn infusing the virus, for it is a mind-virus, into other people while
via the means of the band being able to keep themselves away from the threat
of being sucked into the same old motions again and again. Until more and
more bands turn on their amplifiers and their mics and start ripping out
crunching noiserock (actually, noiserock works a lot better in this respect
than any kind of electronic music…) until the whole globe is covered in
one big sonic boom of pounding drums, bass and guitars. Which will stop the
earth rotating and blow it out of its orbit and into space, where, covered
in endless night, the people on earth will celebrate a never ending party.
So, that is theory, what is reality? After the first
wave of noise rock bands hit us, some conspiracy theorists will start to
blame the producers of instruments and amplifiers to have started the trend
to sell more instruments. Some of the people still in bands will pursue
their regular careers at the side, earn more money and then leave bands to
buy a flat, get married, have babies, buy a big car, and die. Others will
remain in bands, but unable to ever write a decent riff or even a song, will
waste away their time, until the social security system swallows them up.
Yes, something like this, I have seen it all, over and over again.
Nevertheless, it is damn important that there is always new bands trying and
trying, and hopefully, there always will be.
Back to Fluid, wo are really a great, pounding,
punching, kicking, hitting power three piece, They combine the energy of
early Machine Head
(this comparison, of course was fed by the experimental / electronic bits
and pieces that stand out between the songs on side 2) with the screaming force of dark and
brooding heaviness such as Elodea
or Membrane
and then combine it with the raging insanity of the Ruins. It can’t really
be any cooler than that, right? Probably, Men Killing Men comes close in cooleness, but
that’s about it…
