scanners - violence is golden

This could easily be mistaken for a classic 80s album, with it’s curiously familiar sound retaining just enough of a sense of the pedestrian for today’s market. On the forthcoming single ‘Lowlife’ - a gorgeous plea to depression – the band gallop forth winning over Howling Bell’s fans in their wake; it is simply a brilliant pop song. There’s a sense of front loading to Violence is Golden, but delving into the latter half of the record, a creeping obscurity and stylistic experimentation provides us with meatier prospects. Like masters of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s school of thought, they begin to deploy reverb space and drumming variations into the mix. ‘Air 164’ is a Be Your Own Pet-style exercise in carefree thrash punk, while ‘Evil Twin’ takes hypnotism to a new level with it’s Beatles-esque modal repetition. ‘Changing Times’ whacks in a lump of fuzz bass for backing half-way through, changing the song from a haunting loop into a pulsating, screaming stomper. If we’re going to be choosy, ‘Look What You Started’ is probably a missable song, if only for its predictability. But this is for the most part a debut LP that revels in all the best ingredients of the last two decades. It’s dripping with emotional highs and lows: sex, death, misery and joy, and while the band may not be smiling about it, they are alluring throughout.