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Charlottefield: What Friends Are For

18th January 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

Cerebral and primal. These are the two levels upon which humans are stimulated. One appeals to our mind, showing us things we've never seen before, the other, our basic instincts. Charlottefield do both.

Were all the members of Minus the Bear to be caught in actual bear-traps, this might be the sonic result. Utilising complex math-core structures combined with visceral, urgent vocals, this part hits you straight in the central cortex. Charlottefield are as unwilling to spend even a few moments within the same terrain as an 80 year old man would be on a quail hunt in Texas. Closely coupled with these elements is a rhythm section with such complexity, variation and outlandishness that it makes Battles look decidedly routine, and yet still appeals to the inherent animal instincts within each of us.

Putting them apart from the aforementioned artist is the bands complete lack of audial enhancers. Absent are the myriads of modulation pedals which usually populate this style of music, non-existent is the studio wizardry. Four guys, with your friendly neighbourhood instruments alone, scale a veritable mountain of ideas, shapes, tones and pitches.

Hooks lie camouflaged in the darkness before being fired with pinpoint accuracy, shredding their targets in an explosion of splinters, only to retreat with unbeknownst stealth back into the discord from whence they came.

Each of the four contributors is clearly a virtuoso of their trade. So much so that when one of them leaves the mix (as they frequently do) their absence is strikingly apparent. The sheer will for their longingly missed wavelengths to return to the fray is almost ache inducing. “Pacifically” - for instance - remains largely guitar-less throughout its time, only for them to take a bow and galvanise proceedings to switch up to hyperspeed. A release is almost screamed for, but just as quickly, it's taken away from us, with a fade-out of all things, usually one of the most avoided musical devices in alternative rock.

They say every genre has a template, one record which is judged to be the culmination of all the promise instilled into it. If “Fear of a Black Planet” was raps, if Refused provided hardcore's and Fugazi gave us post-hardcore's. Clearly “What Friends are For” is the shape of math-rock to come.

Rating:  9 / 10