LAST OF THE JUANITAS – In the dirt (Wäntage USA)
Posted: March 22nd, 2005, by Simon MinterThere are some albums where each track is very different, and this makes the album seem like a disorganised mess from a band who can’t decide what they’re doing. Then there are some albums where each track is very different, and this serves to reinforce a band with almost more ideas than they can handle. Luckily this one is from the latter camp, and whilst Last of the Juanitas seem all over the place in terms of song structures and styles, they hold it together with an odd sense of noise, paranoia and aggression which is both captivating and exhilarating.
So this album starts with a brooding, doom-laden sludge of a tune which sounds like Low trying to pull off a Part Chimp cover. Then as tracks go by, there are elements of all kinds of other bands hurled into the mix: Prolapse’s relentlessly tense dual-gender vocals; the Nightblooms’ sharply carved guitar chaos; Quickspace’s pop-under-a-pile-of-rubble tunefulness; American Heritage’s heavy angular rock’n’roll shapes. The combination is enriched with a strangely hallucinogenic feel and a foreboding sense of anger, making for a great and surprisingly original-sounding album.
Simon Minter
Simon joined diskant after falling on his head from a great height. A diskant legend in his own lifetime Simon has risen up the ranks through a mixture of foolhardiness and wit. When not breaking musical barriers with top pop combo Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element or releasing records in preposterously exciting packaging he relaxes by looking like Steve Albini.
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