Health - Get Color

It’s here. We’re one of the first to get a hold of a copy of Health’s eagerly anticipated second ‘proper’ album (forgetting the remix LP for now) – in all of its glory. The limited-to-500-copies clear vinyl that I hold in my hand is so early infact, that the download link provided doesn’t even work yet. A quick Google will find scores of people trying to get their grubby digital paws on something.. anything to do with ‘Get Color’ that it feels like a special privilege to wrap back the plastic.

After getting over the dodgy Americanised spelling of the name, as well as my turntable going schitzo halfway through side A - refusing to stop spinning, or moving the tone-arm back and forth from its resting position, I finally managed to feast my ears on the latest ‘noise-rock’ offering.

Or so I thought anyway. Health don’t really fit that tag – not when you throw them in with the likes of Abe Vigoda or the Paper Chase or any of the other more ‘traditional’ band set-ups (bearing in mind how different this lot are already). If you imagine a duck throwing a microphone at a metal wall, you get some sort of idea of what you might expect from what we’ve heard from Health already; drums and guitar parts flying in from nowhere and dropping dead at your feet all over the place.

‘Get Color’ though… what a great album – instead of possibly feeling like the musical rule book has just been taken and put in the blender like their debut, the whole thing feels like a masterpiece; every chord and note placed there with precision for a reason. There’s more use of the haunting, ghost-like ‘vocals’ than before, which just furthers the impression that this music has been delivered from some divinely inspired being, although to even call it ‘vocals’ is misleading, as the term implies that actual words are required to be audible.

That’s not to say that it’s become ‘mainstream’, or that the obscurity has been toned down at all – there are still the frantic interjections of drumming and distortion; it’s just been put together in a way that doesn’t kick the listener in the face every two seconds with a breakneck shift in direction.

If you’ve picked up on this band before and loved tracks like ‘Heaven’, but been put off by some of the more off-the-wall bits that crop up, you’ll love ‘Get Color’. They really are the masters of noise, and they’ve shown why. You could be forgiven for not ‘getting’ their last full-lengths, but if you’re a music lover, this is an album to appreciate.

‘Get Color’ is out on September 8^th 2009, as either a vinyl, CD or MP3 bundle, including a whole plethora of goodies including a pre-sale only t-shirt, stickers, badges and ‘tote-bag’ (whatever that is) – as well as getting a download code on August 8^th - a month before anyone else.

Till then, have a taste at Die Slow from the single of the same name. It’s a beast, and reminds me of the newest industrial sounds from 80s Gary Numan – check it out

MP3 - Die Slow

Europan pre-sales

Official Health website

Myspace

Photo: Renata Raksha