Memory Foam – Steel Magnolias
(1:12 Records)
Reviewed by Tim Gruar.
With songs running at speeds faster than a gulp of hot sake, the debut album from Tāmaki five piece tempur-pedic punks Memory Foam is a shot of intense electric fuzz and chaos that moshs harder than a pit of angsty mohawk-robots tanked up on Tokyo Dry.
Grant Sheridan’s meandering floral album art does not reveal the true force of supernatural anarchy hidden within the grooves of this monster. Recorded mainly at the Lab in Auckland, and co-produced by Mike Logie (Mint Chicks) and the band, ‘Steel Magnolias’ is a searing, no-holds sonic celebration that showcases Yuko Miyoshi’s schizophrenic, absurdist lyricism and vocals, pared up against sparring partner Sam Moore’s face-melting guitar licks. This is all supported by some insane drumming from Guy Innes, throbbing bass from Sinisha Milkovic and a barrage of Japanese vox-pops, digital samples and other machinations of mechanised mayhem provided by Samantha Webb and crew.
I can remember the first time I heard Hüsker Dü’s ‘Candy Apple Grey’. The opener, ‘Crystal’, literally exploded my eardrums within the first two bars. After that it was a full emotional and musical artillery assault from go to whoa! It’s the same-detonate-on-impact feeling you get with this album, too. Nothing really compares to what they do but imagine the members of Shonen Knife joined Dick Move and started performing sets from bands like Headrest Car Crash and Sonic Youth and you’ll be halfway there.
The album begins innocently enough with a very cheesy ‘Hello Kitty’ styled voice clip introducing ‘Choo Choo Train’ but then heads off down a wildly frantic and angular track. Like most of the material here Miyoshi’s vocals move from Sailor Moon to Muzan Kibutsuji in the space of a single note. Pared with additional layers of sound bites and samples, the impact is overwhelming. Much of what’s ‘sung’ is either incomprehensible Japanese or dysfunctional English – who can tell? No clue what this is all about but it’s still great fun.
The title track pumps up the intensity and Innes goes ape-crazy on the drum kit. Once again, its full of a mash up of blurred lyrics and mad guitar wailing antics. It’s nearly impossible to truly get into these songs because they are so short – over within a matter of minutes. The first barely hits 1.5 mins. Most of them never crack the mandatory 3.5 minute mark. It’s a race from chaos to quiet – A wound up alarm clock, every song is sonic explosion of unreleased kinetic energy.
Student radio listeners will remember the band’s debut ‘Burn Up’, which is one of the more ‘melodic’ moments. Full marks for shoe-horning a guitar solo into a song that’s clocks at 1.20. That’s super economic!
Threatening to sound almost like conventional pop ‘Jimbo’ begins with purring kitten and crowd pleasing stomper line. It even boasts verses and a bridge (albeit still undecipherable). It’s quite catchy. At least it would be if it were allowed time to get going. But it collapses into a messy heap like a drunken teenager after a repeat of the first chorus.
The band’s latest drop, ‘Jumping The Karp’ is a “subconscious ode to Sonic Youth”. It it’s a nod to Thurston Moore’s penchant for creating perfect pop songs, then completely destroying them with an avant-garde bulldozer, then this fits the bill. The wailing guitars are entirely out of control, smashing the entire thing against a relentless wall of sound. So, I looked up the term ‘Karp’. The Urban dictionary says to pull a “karp,” is to do something completely unexpected and lucky in order to gain an advantage during an athletic event. It could also mean “Kill All Redneck Pricks” (as per a high school zine) or an acronym for Korean Association of Retired Persons. Take your pick.
If there were any real references to our favourite no-wave act, then the final track ‘Memory Foam’ is as close as you are likely to get. Tapping deeply into early 90’s grunge vibes and ‘Evol’ era manic assaults, this is their most complete and fully formed of their songs, as if everything else that went before was an experiment or false start, in preparation for this moment. Every piece of fuzz, every techno beat, bass and drum groove or guitar riff has been layered over and over. It’s like the cumulative effect of multiple nights sleep, to get to the perfect indention. This is the purpose of Memory Foam. Clever, eh?
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