Review Summary: "They're all fucking crazy man."
Experimental music is quite addicting to me at the present moment. All of the different influences that certain bands apply to their sounds is both addicting and mysterious. Whether it be jazz, post-rock, noise rock, industrial or any of the million other genres out there, the way that they can be blended together to make one cohesive album is fascinating to me. Mandy, Indiana is a band based out of the UK, but is named after a fictional town in, you guessed it, Indiana. I wasn't familiar with their prior work, but now that I've heard their newest album,
URGH, I've become a huge fan. They're a group that's core sound is based in industrial music, but it's also much more than that. Influences from hip-hop, punk and techno make this album quite the journey to go on.
This album has an uncanny ability to make the listener want to dance. Hell, I don't dance at all and it even had me wanting to get up and bust a move to the aggressive, abstract beats and the robotic drumming. Despite being a somewhat harsh-sounding album, it's very digestible at only 34 minutes in length. Right off the bat, the opener, ‘Sevastopol’, starts off with a beat akin to harsh noise with distorted vocals before breaking into a cold, electro-industrial bonanza. The entire album borders along the line of noisy and danceable giving the listener a lot to grasp onto. ‘Magazine’ is easier on the ears with the techno influences breathing through, more industrial vibes and more melodic vocals courtesy of Valentine Caulfield before bursting into a beat that sounds like it would be played at an underground rave. The first two tracks alone go to show you the array of different sounds that the band is working with.
‘Try Saying’ comes next and this track is a cavalcade of punk-esque, erratic drumming mixed with melancholic post-punk chanting and twisted rapping, jazzy drumming and some nice bleeps and boops in the background making the listener's head spin. The fact that most of these tracks are in between two to four minutes really makes it easier to digest. ‘Dodecahedron’ is more of an tribal ambient-esque track at heart with rhythmic drums and more subdued beats and monotone vocals that give off a darker feeling to the album as a whole with what sounds like wind chimes humming in the background.
‘A Brighter Tomorrow’ comes next and it continues the post-punky ambient trend, drawing you in with sheer atmosphere that gives you the feeling of driving alone on a desolate, pitch-black highway in the middle of nowhere. The track that follows, ‘Life Hex’, is the second longest track on the album at just over four minutes long, begins with Valentine chanting “light as a feather, still as a board”, making it sound like you're in some sort of ritualistic, horror movie seance before transitioning into some eerie raps and darker abstract beats. ‘Ist Halt So’ follows next and this track is the most traditionally punk song on the album, in my personal opinion, while still keeping the hip-hop and tribal influences going.
My favorite track on the album is ‘Sicko!’ featuring one of the best rappers in the game at the moment, Billy Woods. Here we have a pure abstract hip-hop song at it's core and Billy's erratic rapping about the politics of big pharma and the effects it has on people around the world just adds so heavily to the post-apolcalyptic atmosphere with industrial techno beats pounding your ear drums. ‘Cursive’ is the longest track on the album, clocking in at about 4 and a half minutes, starts with some indigenous drums and airy synths breathing in the background before turning into a pure techno track. The final track on the album, ‘I'll Ask Her’, ends the album with a bang, giving off an oceanic feeling from the frigid synths that makes you feel as if you're chained to the bottom of the ocean with a limited supply of oxygen. It's possibly the most suffocating track on the entire album with sirens blaring and Valentine's twisted rapping.
Mandy, Indiana has created a true banger with
URGH. My one and only complaint about this album is that it honestly could have been a bit longer, but even then, it's hard for me to be too upset about it because the album is so easy to listen to at it's length. This is an album that can be replayed over and over, and with all of the different influences being fleshed out all over the place, it's not really that big of a deal.
URGH is creative, scary and club-worthy all at the same time. If you're a fan of industrial music, techno, hip-hop and/or post-punk, there will be something for you to enjoy about this album.
