Unknown Relatives' Lagniappe Per Capita. Available here on Cassette.
Lagniappe Per Capita is hyperfocused, and it pays off. The album stays firmly in the realm of post-punk, but that doesn’t mean Unknown Relatives isn’t experimenting and taking chances. Tension is at the heart of Lagniappe Per Capita. It infects the (mostly) unintelligible vocals. It’s in the angular guitar lines and the way they play off Nick Stout’s blasting drums. It’s in the shifting cut and run dynamics of “Presents don’t Work.” Then there’s “Asleep at the Job,” which closes the album. It’s a noticeable slowdown to everything else. A guitar cuts in, repeating four notes moving slowly down and back up. The drums hit a simple beat and the bass joins in. Carpenter agonizes over something on top of everything. But the song never goes anywhere. It keeps building like a claustrophobic wall of sound from every side, getting louder and closing in. And then it all just… goes.
Tape - Standard Cassette.
Unknown Relatives' Lagniappe Per Capita. Available here on Cassette.
Lagniappe Per Capita is hyperfocused, and it pays off. The album stays firmly in the realm of post-punk, but that doesn’t mean Unknown Relatives isn’t experimenting and taking chances. Tension is at the heart of Lagniappe Per Capita. It infects the (mostly) unintelligible vocals. It’s in the angular guitar lines and the way they play off Nick Stout’s blasting drums. It’s in the shifting cut and run dynamics of “Presents don’t Work.” Then there’s “Asleep at the Job,” which closes the album. It’s a noticeable slowdown to everything else. A guitar cuts in, repeating four notes moving slowly down and back up. The drums hit a simple beat and the bass joins in. Carpenter agonizes over something on top of everything. But the song never goes anywhere. It keeps building like a claustrophobic wall of sound from every side, getting louder and closing in. And then it all just… goes.
Tape - Standard Cassette.