Carnivores "If I'm Ancient" cd

Carnivores "If I'm Ancient" cd

If I'm Ancient, Carnivores fiery second coming finds the Atlanta foursome returning to the dissonance and noise-punk mysteries of their 2009 debut All Night Dead USA. But this time around the group strips away the mutant elation and Tropicalia-flirting that defined their tangled beginnings, giving rise to a lean and concise album that truly captures Carnivores corrosive musical chemistry. Drummer Ross Politi joins Nathaniel Higgins (guitar/vocals), Caitlin Lang (keyboard/vocals) and Philip Frobos (bass/vocals) up the ante on a sound that caught the attention of Pitchfork, Fader and Vice Magazine last year for its complex and unclassifiable sound. If I'm Ancient is a terse record that gets right to the point. Blown-speaker haze billows at the center of every noise and every note lending equal strains of consistency and chaos to the album. The manic charge of the album s opener, Feral Children sets the record straight: Carnivores color primal, post-punk fury and the pop avant-garde with dark, acidic hues. In one instance they lock into a manic cacophony of grumbling bass and distant boy/girl mantras in Summer Shades. In the next, Planet Dream recalls the aural mass and wistful yearning of Phil Spector s wall of sound. Much in the way Bowie's album Low signified the beginning of his Berlin era, If I'm Ancient reins in Carnivores sound with precision, but never at the expense of experimentation; nor is their refinement short of melodies. Another example would be the swaggering guitar and Lang s echo-drenched voice in Parent s Attic. Frobos world-weary monologue in The Florentine opens up new vistas of slow rumination in Carnivores sound. Randy Radford embodies the album s ethos that less is more. If I'm Ancient reaches a balanced middle ground deep in the strata of fried fidelity and abrasive aural space that leaves you feeling slightly damaged by the trip, but loving every minute of it.