Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia
Indian Ink


4.5
superb

Review

by Matt Wolfe EMERITUS
November 24th, 2008 | 21 replies


Release Date: 2001 | Tracklist

Review Summary: If you walk away from this record unaffected, please, for your own safety, see a psychiatrist.

I sincerely hope that Emily Gray, vocalist for the now-deceased post rock band ‘Meanwhile, Back in Communist Russia’, hasn’t really led the life that her self-penned monologues seem to indicate. I really, truly mean that, and if you were to listen to the group’s debut album, Indian Ink, you would too. I honestly cannot remember the last time I left an album feeling such an overwhelming sense of pain, such a longing for the well-being of the writer. Seriously, this album got so under my skin that I could feel it crawling up my arm and cutting off my air. If you walk away from this record unaffected, please, for your own safety, see a psychiatrist.

Ok, I won’t lie. If that really were the case then I should be lying on Dr. Buber’s chaise lounge right now describing to him what my first sexual experiences were. No, my first impressions of Indian Ink didn’t involve goosebumps and oxygen masks but rather raised eyebrows and slight smiles. I was immediately intrigued by the shaky female ramblings and thought the music, while a tad generic, was pretty great, taking cues from Mogwai with it’s quiet looming passages being followed by explosive but well-controlled climaxes. After a few listens I would have settled with a high 3/3.5 and occasionally brought the record out again when the mood took me. But then I did some research and looked up the actual words being spoken in their Slint-esque fashion (but female and never sung). I followed the passages against the music in a trance. There was no other way to follow them. Gray’s tale is one of a girl who is living a life blotched by horrific sexual encounters and drug addiction. But the tale is told in such a way that the listener cannot help but feel the pain of the protagonist surging through their veins. Although the monologues are not drenched in ambiguity, the imagery is written with such an acerbic but deeply personal style that it becomes impossible not to become engrossed. Delivered with trembling lips, Gray’s word’s penetrate to the point where you become almost involved in the story, fighting for her life.

The bruise at the base of my spine is butterfly shaped, dressed and downstairs. My mother's eyes flinch away from a skinniness I'm oblivious to. Lank-haired; skin splotched with bruises like split wine. Some few drunken strangers trying to lock their eyes into a body that’s slowly disappearing, sitting-curled in on myself : at the centre of this, there must be a sort of purity if I just work myself in a little deeper. The bones that catch the cold and hold it must point somewhere. Waking, snared in the limbs of someone I never see again - an unfamiliar voice trying to pin me down with sleep-fuzzed concern. He's slack. Flesh bags round his waist and I'm repelled, I'd do anything not to have to touch. Curling tighter around a hunger that cuts to the bone, trying to find the centre that must be round here somewhere.

Listening to ‘No Cigar’ again, after having taken in the lyrics, the music takes a new dimension. From tender, quiet and poignant, it becomes brooding, haunting and simply shattering. When pitched against a voice where you know what words are being spoken, the instrumentation on Indian Ink explodes with anguish. The drum machine beats and computer effects on ‘Delay Decay Attack’ are no longer looked at as detriments that take away from the songs effectiveness but rather add to the song with a grey gleam which shines with melancholy. ‘Acid Drops’, which sounds like it could have been included on Massive Attack’s Mezzanine, tells of the character’s drug overdose. Trudging through broken backbeats, it builds up slowly and, just like the drugs effect, explodes for just a short second until drifting into an sleepy piano section. The music on Indian Ink literally becomes part of the story, it follows the pain the character follows. ‘Morning After Pill’, the final track, hurts. There is no happy ending. The words, delivered with their warranted cynicism, whisper over their mic with the help of gloomy guitar work, until suddenly, the final fight is launched and they both charge with intensity, the drums and guitars menacing with rage, the voice bleeding with desperation. The fact that the record ends with the words “I couldn’t see the point” epitomizes this record’s despondency. It hurts.

Indian Ink is proof that lyrics can play a part in the world of post rock. Without them, this album would have been shot down as another solid but uninspired release. With them, it has become a gem. A very dusty, battered gem, but a gem nonetheless, and a gem which holds an immense amount of value. Now, you should do three things. Find this record, listen to it a few times. Next, look up the lyrics, and play it again. Then listen to it once more and be transported to a bleak dystopia of depression, drug addiction, and near-death, where this is no light at the end of the tunnel and there is no means of escape. I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.



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user ratings (57)
3.8
excellent


Comments:Add a Comment 
poweroftheweez
November 24th 2008


1298 Comments


sweet reviewage. I want to check this out now.

Minus The Flair
Emeritus
November 24th 2008


870 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

Yeah, I do mean what I say though about giving it a few runs over first then checking the lyrics. It took this from a 3.5 to a 4.5 for me.



I really need to get off the post rock reviews for a while. Also, I had a hard time with this review but I'd been working on it for a while and just wanted to get it out, so it might not seem up to scratch. This Message Edited On 11.24.08

robin
November 24th 2008


4596 Comments


i got this after you rec'd it, but decided i'd wait for your review to listen. excellent work.

Zippermouth
November 24th 2008


1305 Comments


This review kicks so much ass its not funny. Awesome job. After listening to a bit of post-rock lately this definitely sounds like something worth my time. This Message Edited On 11.24.08

Willie
Moderator
November 25th 2008


20311 Comments


Great review. I just heard these guys for the first time on last.fm a few days back. I want this even more now that I know the story behind it.

craigy2
November 30th 2008


551 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

the band's name alone makes me want to check this out, and your review makes me want to even more. great job.

robin
December 31st 2008


4596 Comments


this has grown on me loads, you're right about the lyrics. at first the voice makes them sort of offputting but after distinguishing them its just so fittingThis Message Edited On 12.31.08

robin
January 10th 2009


4596 Comments


this is incredible.

Minus The Flair
Emeritus
January 10th 2009


870 Comments

Album Rating: 4.5

I shoved fistfuls of ice into my eyes and mouth and thought : Now I am away from it all. The air is warm, is black, smells of vinegar acids - wanting to dissolve to a vapour, to disappear, to be ice-cold, knife sharp, to cut, to sear, to burn, but the light frays my nerves, hurts my eyes and then it's over. You're ill, I'm drinking; it's morning…



ughhhh killer

robin
January 11th 2009


4596 Comments


needs more love, pretty much the most emphatic album ever.

AggravatedYeti
February 15th 2009


7683 Comments


I really want this.

DiceMan
August 15th 2010


7066 Comments


I might look this up.

eternium
August 15th 2010


16358 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

About to listen to this.

acorncheese
August 15th 2010


7139 Comments


Will check this out.

eternium
August 15th 2010


16358 Comments

Album Rating: 3.0

Okay, I'm rather bored by this.

AnotherBrick
August 15th 2010


9811 Comments

Album Rating: 3.5

nooooooooooooooooooooooooo



my d/l just finished

patroneyes
November 26th 2010


1921 Comments

Album Rating: 4.0

"You say you don't feel fully fledged, then crawl into the womb. You're too scared to agree or disagree or even think

about what you want. You say you're scared of feeling trapped, and then lock yourself in your mother's house."



ffs
February 6th 2011


6327 Comments


her voice is really annoying

Get Low
February 11th 2022


14569 Comments


this looks sweet

MarsKid
Emeritus
February 11th 2022


21035 Comments


Helluva band name



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