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Forward Russia
Life Processes
Cooking Vinyl
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Article
written by Matt P
Apr 4, 2008.
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Forward Russia first attracted attention a few years ago for their distinctive style of raw, unpolished and aggressive noise. They were a musical Stuart Pearce screaming at a collection of perfectly preened Ronaldos whilst bleeding brazenly from a head wound. Like Pearce in his heyday, you felt they could self-destruct at any minute, but damn, did you want to be there to see it.
The debut album Give Me A Wall added a dash of produced sparkle to proceedings but managed to retain the raw energy. Between times they have left the Dance To The Radio label and Life Processes is their first release for the ever-so-slightly bigger Cooking Vinyl. And it does, by their own admission, herald a slightly different direction in their sound. The first album hinted at two gears: the brutal and scything (Fifteen Part 2) and the more delicate (Nineteen). On this album the delicacy is honed and prefected whilst the brutality is retained and remodelled.
With experience the Russians have evidently developed greater stamina: the 3 and 4 minute efforts of the first album have been converted into plenty of fives and sixes. Whilst that initially may seem of little consequence, it encapsulates the change in sound: everything is bigger, more subtle and with more depth. As Tom Woodhead himself sings: "there's never been a time to be so intricate."
In fact some tracks are almost progressive in nature, notably Gravity and Heat; an epic, schizophrenic rollercoaster which rises and falls with the regularity of a TV talent show winner. The long haul doesn't always work however: Some Buildings wanders along dreamily for a good four and a half minutes before finally waking from its stupor and finding a steely edge. The album in the edgier moments is also darker, not just in the metallic growling of the guitars but also in the lyrics. The first track Welcome To The Moment makes this inescapably clear with the disturbing mentions of murdered children and the announcement that "Tonight God is angry." Not surprising really, if you've murdered a child.
The aforementioned delicacy is cleverly interlaced between the more violent tracks, in particular the melancholic Fosbury in Discontent, which is led by a minimalistic piano. It should feel out of place but somehow, surrounded as it is by the more menacing tracks, its poignancy stands out. Equally ear catching is the closing track, the nine minute magnus opus that is Spanish Triangles. If there was a textbook on how to write feel-good, rousing, sing-a-long anthems this would undoubtedly feature heavily. Unfortunately the repeating chorus could be reverberating round your head for weeks to come.
Beauty meets the Beast on this album: I would ask you to picture ol' Pyscho Pearce hand in hand with a porcelain skinned willowy damsel, but of course that's far too disturbing. But the light and the dark co-exist very well on Life Processes: yes, it's more produced than previous work and some of it may sound more commercially aimed (the single Breaking Standing is uninspiring), but as difficult second albums go it has done the job and then some.
Untitled Document
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