There’s something strangely enthralling about a tethered dissonance. For proof of this, look no further than Rip It Off, the new record from Times New Viking. It’s the sort of album that will drive many listeners away holding their bruised and battered ears. And it’s certainly an acquired taste. But there really is something here that draws you in – something that you can’t experience with the traditional clean sounds of most music.
Because it’s not just that Times New Viking are loud – lots of people are loud – it’s the way the sound envelops you and cuts off all sight of everything beyond. To listen is to be trapped in the midst of a storm with no clue whether it stops just beyond your sight or goes on forever. It’s full of crackling energy and guitars that attack you from all sides at once. And yet buried in all that is a strangely pure melody.
And for about 15 minutes, over the first seven tracks, it all works to perfection. Where the traditional, classical approach to dissonance is to resolve it by following it with a period of consonance, Times New Viking employs an altogether more satisfactory approach. Instead of intervals it all comes together at once. The tension, the instability, the buffeting harshness…these are all put into dialogue. And what emerges is a deeper smoothness that keeps the whole delicate mess channeled.
Unfortunately, this trend falters with the eighth track “Relevant: Now,” which breaks up the whole flow of the record. At 3:39 it is two or three times longer than virtually every other song. And once you finally reach the end, you’ve lost your feel for the discordant harmonies of the first half. The second half contains a number of fine songs, in particular the excellent “Times New Viking Vs. Yo La Tengo” but the conceit is now revealed. Like a visual illusion that you finally crack but then find yourself completely incapable of shifting your vision back, once the trick is resolved there’s no going back.
It’s a shame because for a little while they do about as good of a job of navigating the treacherous paths as I can remember. And still, if it fails to break genre boundaries in quite the fashion that it initially promises, it nevertheless remains a very solid and enjoyable record.
(My Head) – Times New Viking
Times New Viking Vs. Yo La Tengo – Times New Viking