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Times New Viking: Rip It Off

22nd April 2008 | by Aidan Williamson

This is not your ringtone. This is not your work-out mix. This is not the soundtrack used to sell you the latest model of 4x4 amid the backdrop of snowy peaks. This is not the audio cue to the sentimental moment of Grey's Anatomy. This is the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world!

What this is, is what madness likely feels like. The strenuous effort of picking one thought out of the jumbled mess of confusion. When that glimmer of sense does penetrate through though, it's as clear as God's voice telling you to dismember those young women, or to cover that budgie in icing sugar before dipping him in the deep fat fryer or to invade Iraq.

When the Ohio-based no-fi wonderkids, Times New Viking signed to Matador Records, there were a fair few expectations. Many feared for their passionate sound, drenched in wave after wave of hissing, cacophonous noise which all-but drowned out any rhyme or reason from the final mix. In the days where any John Doe with a sound-in port on his computer can concoct moderately professional recordings, surely a band backed by big dollars would never be allowed to sound this scrappy?

Few expected that the trio would simply continue on their way, yet this is what Times New Viking did. With album number three the noise continues, vehemently now as a form of expression rather than through a lack of finance, this is a band who know exactly what they want to sound like, and it just happens to be free aeroplane earphones.

The main effect of this is that no longer is music a passive experience, "Rip It Off" requires serious amounts of concentration to pick the melodies from the over-clocked audio. As we all take on the role of archaeologists, the rewards are great, for Times New Viking's work is littered with melodic pop gems which glisten beneath the rocky top-soil.

"(My Head)" bounds along like a moth-eaten mongrel, with love a-plenty to give to anyone and everyone. A caustic sing-a-long powered by instruments that sound like they belong in nursery school. "End of All Things" offers the sole vision of life without tsunamic decadence as the song falls into an acoustic kick-down. Despite the fact that this should provide comfort, quite the opposite is true as the realisation strikes you that the wails of feedback and audial flares had become your safety blanket. Happily the deprivation lasts the shortest of moments.

In a world of production gloss, vocal-tuning, track compression, 21 piece orchestras and crystal clarity, "Rip It Off" feels all the more necessary, a constant reminder that art is within the grasp of all of us, not just the property of the elite, but the domain of any kid with an open mind and a broken guitar.

Rating:  8 / 10