Named for the '60s crime novel by Jim Thompson,
Pop. 1280
are similarly bleak. Released nearly a year after the
Grid
12", the music on the post-punk quartet's debut is atonal, full of noisy, jagged guitar strikes, brittle drumming, and minimalist, deliberately repetitive vocal shouts. Any sense of melody is thrown out the window. Instead, chief songwriters
Chris Bug
and
Ivan Lip
aim to create tension. Their label,
Sacred Bones
, has been on a roll for a while now (it's usually easy to tell a band on that label by the similar typeface on the CDs), and
sit in the same fashionably dark outer fringe as most artists on the roster (
Slug Guts
,
the Men
, and
Amen Dunes
come to mind).
The Horror
was recorded in the
Python Patrol
basement studios in Brooklyn with engineer
Ben Greenberg
, and the music has a mean, snarling attitude that feels street-bred. "Bodies in the Dunes" and "Hang 'Em High" are pure nihilism, and the band's free-form style of playing is every bit as anti-musical and explosive as '70s no wave, making for a savage listen. ~ Jason Lymangrover