I admit to having picked up this disc for review simply based on the enigmatic cover image, with no background knowledge about the band. His Electro Blue Voice is a pretty wanky name, and my guess would have been that this was some Durutti Column revival project…but the opening blasts of the opening track, “Death Climb,” put that notion to rest in a hurry.
This album whirls from bursts of blast beats to spacey motorik stuff, but those are the absolute extremes. Most of it is fast paced but dark rock music, the kind of stuff that is immediately catchy but was put through the hopper with enough quirks to remain interesting on repeated listens. It would come as little surprise to hear this gang is obsessed with arty punk from the early ‘80s. For example, “Spit Dirt” finds the group channeling Swell Maps to great effect on an eight-minute track that may just be the highlight here. Twists and turns on these songs are generally jarring rather than subtle, but the style works for His Electro Blue Voice. “Tumor” is another good one, ditto for the latter part of “Red Earth,” which takes a few minutes to pick up steam but eventually makes itself a satisfying closer.
It’s hard to determine how serious the words are in these songs. The Ruthless Sperm album title suggests that stuff of life as a violent, destructive force, and the tone of the album matches that pretty well. The names of the band members suggest they are Italian, so maybe there’s some really clever wordplay to which I am simply not privy. Until someone clues me in, though, I’m just going to enjoy this disc for the music—because on that count, it delivers nearly in full. (Sub Pop, hiselectrobluevoice.bandcamp.com/) Daniel Emberg