Komrad - March of the Robot Men

(Big Red Sky, 2012)

On their dizzying and long-awaited debut, Komrad have delivered an album that shares the restless energy of their live performances and which perfectly captures their oddball, angular, shape-shifting sound. Anyone who has seen the band in a live capacity will know that they are capable of dividing a crowd (some would argue that they are merely separating the wheat from the chaff) and this is because a) their style is essentially a brutal form of hardcore punk-metal and b) they are wilfully schizophrenic musical tricksters. You won’t find a song on this album that follows a conventional verse-chorus-verse structure for example; instead what you get is an opening blast followed by a series of what-the-fuck time signatures, Zappa-esque prog breakdowns and post-rock ambience. And the odd cowbell solo.

But where other bands would struggle to weave together such a seemingly disparate assortment of ideas (without the results sounding clunky and thrown-together), Komrad manage it seamlessly. In this respect, much of the pressure falls on drummer James Currie who holds everything together admirably through every time signature, every whimsical twist and turn that the rest of the band throw at him, while bassist Dave Cranwell provides interesting counter-melodies and rhythms on songs like ‘Cowley Neck Tie’. Likewise, singer James Green has his work cut out adding vocal melodies to these songs but he injects them with his larger-than-life personality and actual hummable tunes throughout proceedings (as well as some of the best song titles in Oxford).

But one of the true joys of hearing these songs in their recorded forms is being able to pick out some of Jimmy Hetherington and Russ Blaine’s slightly more insane guitar lines which normally get muddied in the mix live. Anyone who has followed any of Jimmy’s previous bands (Ivy’s Itch, Suitable Case for Treatment) will know that he’s not content to make things easy for himself or those unfortunate to be around him but Komrad might be the most technical band he’s been in; Russ and he often sound like they’re locked in some demented Guitar Hero battle, each harmonising with one another and throwing in little guitar spasm twiddles to throw the other off course.

Musically the band are a unique synthesis of various artists – one can hear glimpses of Faith No More, Dillinger Escape Plan, King Crimson, Yes, Melvins, Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart & his Magic Band to name a few – but Komrad genuinely sound like no other band I’ve ever heard. Primarily bombastic, some of the best moments on the album are the airy, atmospheric breakaways (see ‘Mirror Mirror On the Wall’, ‘Staring Through Leonard Nimoy’s Eyes’) but they are few and far between in the band’s characteristic metallic prog chug. ‘Cowley Neck Tie’ may be their most perfectly formed song, pitching complex beginnings against a simple, almost crowd-pleasingly rollicking, triumphant ending. By contrast, almost-title track ‘Here Come The Robot Men’ sounds like a circuit breaking. ‘Blowing Up a Rubber Doll Does Not Make You a Martyr’ (see what I mean about song titles?) is the most explosive track, touching upon several genres but then again most of the tracks do.

Ultimately, a track-by-track commentary is pointless, the results could fill a final year thesis. Suffice to say, March of the Robot Men is a debut album so absolutely bursting with bat-shit crazy ideas that it really needs to be heard to be believed.

[Originally published on Music in Oxford, 05/07/2012]

http://www.musicinoxford.co.uk/2012/07/05/komrad-march-of-the-robot-men-big-red-sky-records/