¡Forward, Russia! - Breaking Standing
Artist:
¡Forward, Russia!
Rating:
Leeds cottage industrialists ¡Forward, Russia! have DIY artrock credentials and an interesting approach to typography. Yes, they've ditched the numbers and started using proper song titles. With words and all that. As titles go, 'Breaking Standing' is a curious mixture of two continuous present verbs that is either a striking, poetic image or a pretentious nothing.
Lead single from sophomore album 'Life Processes', 'Breaking Standing' is a muted fanfare to announce the band's new material. Emerging from an icy expanse of juddering guitars, it sounds more like their Soviet-influenced contemporaries Bloc Party than ever before. Produced by Seattle-based Matt Bayles (who has previously worked with grunge deities Pearl Jam and Soundgarden), there is a near dehumanised gloss to the recording similar to Gang of Four. Perhaps, like their Leeds predecessors, this is another device to emphasise the artifice of the creative process.
For this new, sleeker direction, ¡Forward, Russia! are focussing on the human body. "The bruises on the inside of your face, those pummelled blanches showed through your translucent skin" coos singer Tom Woodhead. Yes, coos. He spent much of the band's 2006 debut 'Give Me a Wall' in a yelping hissy fit, but his vocal histrionics have been calmed.
Overall, 'Breaking Standing' is a recognisable yet more rational ¡Forward, Russia!. It is not until the three and a half minute mark that 'Breaking Standing' reaches a brief climactic barrage of angular guitars then swiftly disappears with Tom's sighed "forever...". ¡Forward, Russia! have ordered their chaos, and sound all the wiser for doing so.
'Breaking Standing' is released as a single through Cooking Vinyl on 7th April 2008.
Jacky Hall
¡Forward, Russia! Official Site
Forward Russia Myspace
Dance To The Radio
Rating:
Leeds cottage industrialists ¡Forward, Russia! have DIY artrock credentials and an interesting approach to typography. Yes, they've ditched the numbers and started using proper song titles. With words and all that. As titles go, 'Breaking Standing' is a curious mixture of two continuous present verbs that is either a striking, poetic image or a pretentious nothing.
Lead single from sophomore album 'Life Processes', 'Breaking Standing' is a muted fanfare to announce the band's new material. Emerging from an icy expanse of juddering guitars, it sounds more like their Soviet-influenced contemporaries Bloc Party than ever before. Produced by Seattle-based Matt Bayles (who has previously worked with grunge deities Pearl Jam and Soundgarden), there is a near dehumanised gloss to the recording similar to Gang of Four. Perhaps, like their Leeds predecessors, this is another device to emphasise the artifice of the creative process.
For this new, sleeker direction, ¡Forward, Russia! are focussing on the human body. "The bruises on the inside of your face, those pummelled blanches showed through your translucent skin" coos singer Tom Woodhead. Yes, coos. He spent much of the band's 2006 debut 'Give Me a Wall' in a yelping hissy fit, but his vocal histrionics have been calmed.
Overall, 'Breaking Standing' is a recognisable yet more rational ¡Forward, Russia!. It is not until the three and a half minute mark that 'Breaking Standing' reaches a brief climactic barrage of angular guitars then swiftly disappears with Tom's sighed "forever...". ¡Forward, Russia! have ordered their chaos, and sound all the wiser for doing so.
'Breaking Standing' is released as a single through Cooking Vinyl on 7th April 2008.
Jacky Hall
¡Forward, Russia! Official Site
Forward Russia Myspace
Dance To The Radio
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