| 
Review: Jack Foley
RAW, dirty, sexy and downright filthy is how rock 'n' rollers,
Narco, like to describe themselves.
Their album is a fired-up and unapologetically brutal monster,
packed with 12 of the sleaziest garage rock tracks you're ever
likely to hear.
How much you like it depends on how much you fancy the idea of
ear-drum penetrating power-chords and near incessant drum rolls,
set around the sort of hedonistic antics that might even make
Oasis blush.
Needless to say, Control of the Stereo is not an easy
listen; rather, it's a full-on assault that offers very little
respite for the faint of heart.
Narco have existed for a while now, having found fame by providing
the music for multi-million-selling computer games like Driver
and Getaway.
Hence, their particular brand of songwriting is appropriate backing
music for blasting around in fast cars and killing people in computer-game
form - and very little else, unless you like stiflingly hot subterranean
clubs with a ceiling so low that your head bumps against it.
But then what else could you expect from a band whose line-up
includes Cave (a self-confessed neanderthal vocalist who once
stayed awake for four days in Berlin in a white suit that served
as a record of everything he ate and drank in that period), J.G.
(a pervert keyboardist prone to getting his cock out onstage and
playing chords with his scrotum) and Chopper (a bad tempered drummer
set permanently to 'breakneck')?
Tracks include the swamp-rocker, Uno Kilo de Stilo; Worth
It, which is best described by the band themselves as being
'like the forcible sodomy of The Glitter Band', and their former
single and garage rock anthem, Evil Brother.
Most sound the same, few contain any sort of melody or restraint
and most embrace the hedonistic excess of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle.
The odd notable exception comes in the form of tracks such as
2nd Evolution, which is the closest thing to a love song
the band have created.
Yet such moments are in short supply and I doubt you'll really
stay tuned in long enough for Narco to persuade you to take Control
of the Stereo.
|
