Reviews

Automaton Industries

Automaton Industries - 2009-02-06

For a second there, post-punk became really cool again. Interpol were said to be haunted by the ghost of Ian Curtis. The term was being thrown at bands like The Departure and Editors, even Bloc Party before they set out to become the next electro-clash sensation. Then came Anton Corbijn’s Control (which I suffered through at D.C.’s fashionable E Street Theater while scenesters filled the cinema with whispers every time a Joy Division song came on – “This is my favorite song, like, oh my god”), possibly the revival’s final hurrah. And then, as quickly as it had come, the resurgence withered. By the time that The Arcade Fire dropped Neon Bible and The Killer’s released Sam’s Town*, everyone’s favorite record became Born To Run (especially if they hated The Killers, this gave them ample cause for furthering their hatred)… and the post-punk renaissance was over.

Sweden’s Cut City never got that memo.

Following up 2007’s Exit Decades, a record that spanned every form of contemporary post-punk – from near mimicry of Joy Division’s production and sound to compositions that would not have felt amiss lost in the tracklistings for Silent Alarm or The Back Room – Cut City have tightened up on Narcissus Can Wait. Continuing on with the voice that felt most their own from Exit Decades, flushed with the momentum present on their split 7” with Cat Party, Narcissus Can Wait is everything a five song EP should be – forcefully constructed and feeling like a completed work, not a few tracks slapped together to tide fans over until the next album. Max Hansson appears more comfortable with his vocal delivery, no longer attempting to channel Curtis (which, to be honest, he’s rather good at). Most strikingly, only two of the five tracks are in any way driving, the remaining three being lush, stratified compositions evoking moments of Working for a Nuclear Free City, My Bloody Valentine, and Youth Group’s latest, and finest, record The Night Is Ours. With White Lies making some serious waves across the pond, it may not be a bad idea to diversify your 2009 post-punk record collection so as to be too cool for school when the hype makers start riding high on that post-punk wave again. Trust me, having a Joy Division t-shirt just doesn’t cut it anymore these days.

* - Ironically, The Killer’s were featured on the Control soundtrack. What a world we live in. Oh, and did you notice I saw Control at the E Street Theater? What is up with that?

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Lars Garvey | URL