Monday, August 13, 2012

The Feeling of Love-So Chocolate CS (2012)

The fact that a man is making out with a cat on the cover of this cassette tells you a lot about Metz's The Feeling of Love. Well, not that much, in fact, although it hints at the perversity lurking beneath the harsh red-and-black cover.

The Feeling of Love's sound has three components: shrill, scrollsaw guitar; arrhythmic, off-kilter drumming; and a singer who howls in what sounds to me like the male version of the woman from AIDS Wolf. Being a Frenchman, The Feeling of Love's singer is a lot snottier, in a punk sorta way.

This album might be a bit too long-noiserock terrorism is, after all, a delicate proposition for most audiences-but I dig it. "Because He's the Singer" is just an almost-tuneful guitar line that the singer bounces, howls, mewls, and talks around. Most of the time he seems to be discussing Jon Spencer Blues Explosion(?). "Jordan's Rules" sounds like it's gonna be the cathartic release after the first two miserably drudging tunes, but the opening guitar riff just keeps riffing: sorta like Plastic Crimewave Sound, there's no release to found here. The singer lectures/rants/stalks over this guitar in French.

"Hand Clap Girls" unravels the blooz punk roots of The Feeling: go figure, electronic handclaps feature heavily. The music is moronically simple in the same way that the best songs on The Stooges' first album was:intentionally boring, it sucks you into a hypnotized fixation. Hell, it almost makes ya bounce! Really, though, the gold gots ta go to "I'm Nothing but a Drunk Pussy": it's a blues stomp filtered through people who've listened to the No New York comp a few too many times. The whole thing blows up in a hissing, staticy mess halfway through: it's the brilliant core of the album. Hell, I liked it so much it's on the most recent installment of Alone and Forsaken.

Listen to the tape and then buy it here. Read an interview with the frontman, Guillaume, Marietta, qua.Follow The Feeling of Love and their shenanigans on facebook. Brought to you care of Schmalzgrub Audiokassetten label.

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