SECOND LAYER - VINYL COURT OR WARS [VINYL]

Popis - COURT OR WARS [VINYL]:
Adrian Borland and Graham Bailey might be better known as members of legendary post-punk group The Sound, but the two were childhood friends and had been playing together even earlier in The Outsiders, and continued their deep musical rapport as a duo, creating these intense and engaging songs as Second Layer at the same time as their higher profile band output. Combining their early recordings, including the 1979
'Flesh As Property' EP and 1980 'State Of Emergency' EP,
'Courts Or Wars' takes its title from the first song that
served as the pair's introduction to listeners. Right from the
beginning you are enveloped in what The Quietus described
as, "a monochrome worldview morbidly obsessed with the
dehumanizing effect of war, nuclear weapon annihilation,
and the fracturing and negation of the self within an
increasingly distorted and technologically mediated
society." Where The Sound fit snugly next to Echo And The
Bunnymen, Second Layer had far more in common with
the pulsing menace of Suicide. Borland's familiar vocals and sense of melody hold a connection to his other songwriting, but within these songs he takes far more risks in his guitar work to suit the subject matter. What really drives everything is Bailey's propulsive bedrock, formed by his homemade pre-drum machine rhythm generators, creating an innovative mechanical
approach that somehow inserts a jittery neurotic touch that
merges perfectly with his electronic layers driven by the
wasp synth, various unique effects boxes or tape loops. Adding in Bailey's own distinctive bass playing, the results feel personal and experimental, pointed and harsh, while also bracingly accessible and covered in dark manic energy. Over forty years later, these recordings feel shockingly appropriate. In painting a bleak reality and frightening
future, there is real desperate beauty here.