Gang Of Youths – Benevolence Riots
I have this image in my head when I listen to Joy Division – a big empty warehouse room with a person crouched in the corner, hands over their ears. Their songs usually start with some kind of chugging or pulsing, a mechanical sound, something like the machinery of the world relentlessly working outside, all around. Then the guitar comes in with high distorted melody lines, the primitive scream emanating from the mouth of this defeated individual. Ian Curtis usually then sings a monotone monologue; the thoughts going through the head of this figure. There’s a similar impression when I listen to Benevolence Riots.
Though GOY have an inherent catchiness that’d be out place in a Division tune, this song starts with that mechanistic chug and the primordial guitar scream, and Dave’s vocals then cutting through with the same world-weary drawl that we’ve come to know and love so well. Equal parts metaphysical and urban, equal parts gritty and etherial, GOY have some of the most interesting textures that I’ve heard for a while. Lots of lost layers slipping in and out, floating up to the sonic surface and fading into the depths. And of course the cacophonic racket at 1:40 is the only real way to get away with doing a guitar solo these days, the Jackson Pollock of guitar playing.
This is conceptual rock. It’s brave to write a song that tries to be more than we (the audience) expect. It’s brave (for you the listener) to then engage with that song until you find that something in it that was meant just for you, even if it isn’t immediately evident. But if you can’t find it in 5 listens, maybe it wasn’t meant to be and there’s always Bon Iver for a fallback.
He’s still a thing right?
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