WARPAINT – Warpaint
01. Intro
02. Keep It Healthy
03. Love Is to Die
04. Hi
05. Biggy
06. Teese
07. Disco//very
08. Go in
09. Feeling Alright
10. CC
11. Drive
12. Son
It takes seconds to set the bar for WARPAINT on their self titled sophomore album. A beat, tight and straight, kicks in and is suddenly suspended: /Fuck. Sorry./ – drummer Stella Mozgawa shouts before counting it in again. From here on: No bullshit. Bravado and a dark groove roll through the Intro of Warpaint and on.
The record is made to listen in full. It seems to float by, reveal detail and composition only within time and repetition. The only song serving a real chorus is lead single Love is to die. A humble and ghostly track, playing with indiscretion: Keep on moving steadily, or float off into Garlands. It calls upon free falling hedonism: “cause i’ve got a knife to cut out the memories”. WARPAINT wanted the record to appeal more minimalistic compared to predecessor the Fool. The result is more subtle, certainly well crafted and professional. The production by Flood is rich and detailed. Layers start to peel off, rhythmic shifts and guitar figures fade in and out, softly stroke the laid back listeners tympanic membrane.
Warpaint is a psychedelic record. Hi weaves together Hip Hop, (well chosen, but random) electronic elements and Dub, before waving into an In Rainbows era RADIOHEAD-esque ride cymbal ridden passage: You don’t book Nigel Godrich for nothing, right? Anyhow, there’s a lot of esoteric hover all over the album. Meditative moments are created by repetition of deserty psychedelia. Though often compared to 90s dream pop acts and groups like JOY DIVISION or THE CURE, their synthesizers sound more like pan-flute-warmth than cold industrial despair. WARPAINTs ghostly spirits should rather recall THE DOORS than COCTEAU TWINS.
Though the rhythm section often is the driving element, serving playful and tight, sometimes bouncy fundaments, WARPAINT gain appeal being less muscular. Especially Songs like Go In or Teese breathe more naturally and suffice on sparse compositional effort.
Whereas music played in the key of dark and hazed romanticism longs for the tragic and intangible existence, WARPAINT seem rather controlled and purposive. Disco//Very operates a sort of rap-lyric-sceme over a pleasingly sexy disco-groove: but in the end, the records closest to an up-beat song gets lost over eccentric hystericism.
All these tiny echoing voices and clicks, reverbs, walls of sound, well placed cues, rolls and fills, little “mistakes”, the accentuated hi-hat, the genre-quoting-pre-sets, the flashy design and “you got me, so sick/ spinning dizzy/ /there’s no words, seeing’s believing/ /there’s no world to compromise” – lyrics: It may be narrow minded authors misreading of the poetic genius and productional flourish (which, natürlich, exemplifies aesthetic savvy); but still, something’s there and it smells like sun melted plastic from fuckin’ californIA.
With their second full-length release, WARPAINT discover a rather professional side of indie-music and get tangled up in their smarty-pants — here not mentioning the great slow- burning stoners they write: Go In.
NBHAP Rating: 3/5