Blonde Redhead
In An Expression Of The Inexpressible
[Touch and Go]
Rating: 5.5
On paper as well as in person, Blonde Redhead is about as New York as you
can get: two Italian twin brothers and a Japanese woman, whose collective
moniker is lifted from a song by NY no- wavers DNA, and whose sound pits
Sonic Youth-ish guitars against a vaguely Eurotrash artistic sensibility.
Their first two albums on Smells Like Records (which is run by Sonic Youth
drummer Steve Shelley, naturally) were mostly dreamy, dark guitar washes with
the occasional exploration into no- wave (a Moog squiggle here, a
fractured rhythm there)-- pretty decent indie- rock fare by anyone's
standards, but nothing to get too excited about. 1997's Fake Can Be
Just As Good steered Blonde Redhead in a promising direction; besides
having quite the apropos title, it was created under the heavy influence
of Unwound, which reconfigured their wall- of- guitar sound into more
twitchy, skeletal arrangements.
In An Expression of the Inexpressible picks up where Fake Can Be
Just As Good left off. And perhaps, as indicated by the title, Blonde
Redhead are heading further into avant-rock territory. Somewhat
unsurprisingly, the more listenable tracks are those which recall their
early work; "Distilled" briefly revisits the Youth's heady drone, and
"Futurism vs. Passeism Part 2" is a bubbly, dissonant drive (though it
wouldn't be complete without the added touch of vocals spoken in French--
by Fugazi's Guy Picciotto, no less). "Luv Machine" and "Speed x Distance =
Time" are more typical tracks-- slow- paced songs with simple,
intertwining guitar lines, high- pitched, panting female vocals by Kazu
Makino, and drumming which could charitably be described as "creative."
Blonde Redhead strives to achieve a sort of laid- back tension and moody
sexiness, but it comes off instead as lethargic and unengaging. The worst
offender is the title track, which is little more than Makino moaning
incomprehensibly over a one-note bass thunk. Minimalism may work for some,
but not this band.
Maybe the reason that I don't warm to In An Expression of the
Inexpressible much is simply because I'm not from New York and don't
have the background to understand Blonde Redhead's art- damaged aesthetic.
Then again, most people on Earth are like me in that respect, and while
they could appreciate Blonde Redhead's music, they won't necessarily enjoy
it.
-Nick Mirov