Gay Beast - Disrobics

[Rae]

I picked up this long awaited full-length by Minneapolis' reigning skronk-punk-dance-noise-queer-art whatevers. Their basic sound combines shouted vocals, pulsing organ, mathy drumming, and angular guitars to make challenging yet danceable music. Upon a couple of initial spins, I'll say that the album represents them well and even does justice to their sweaty live performances. 4 out of the album's 10 tracks are new songs (although all are new recordings); the remainder appeared in various forms on the groups' 2 earlier EPs. Of the re-recordings, all are improvements save for "ID Politic" and "Three Pairs of Eyes: Brown, Brown, Blue". Both are generally agreeable but just a little disappointing-- the former should have been anthemic, given its relatively conventional song structure compared to most of their work, but a muddy arrangement and several offbeat production choices keep it from reaching that height; the latter lacks the thrilling whipcrack chaos-cohesion feel of the version that appeared on the Quilted Navy Pier EP. Of the new tracks, the best are the two that crop up on side B. "Cyclops" is the record's clear standout; scraping guitars give way to mechanical percussion and ominous bursts of distorted organ sound. The album-closing title track should also delight any noise fan as it degenerates into increasingly spastic bursts and finally spins itself into a lockgroove.

Overall, I'm happy that they put together such a solid record; hopefully this full-length along with their ambitious touring schedule will break them to a wider audience.

If you're interested, check out "Cyclops" or the EP version of "ID Politic" on their MySpace page (myspace.com/gaybeast) or order the record direct from DNT (dntrecords.com).



~Rae

[PeruvianSkies]

That's pretty...gay.

[Finch Platte]

Wow. For some reason, I kind of like this.

That means it's doomed for failure.

fp