hysterical injury: dead wolf situation

This sister–brother duo from Wales don’t invite easy analysis. Dead Wolf Situation, their debut full-length and first release since their 2009 self-titled EP, creates a stormy atmosphere, full of ire and internal contradiction, making the kind of racket that belies the Gardiners’ simple setup (Annie on vocals, guitar and bass; Tom on drums). The range of sounds and expressions created across these dozen songs – particularly with the guitars – is remarkable and almost viscerally striking. From the fuzz of opener ‘Halo Alkanes’ to the dark, abrasive chugging bass of ‘Icebreak’ and the frenetic edge to ‘Cycle One’, this is musicianship that is almost raw in its energy and conviction, all squeaking frets and dark, scuzzy bursts of noise and riffs. The drumming, often of the Meg White bash-it-out variety, holds its own too, and several of the tracks are introduced with solos from Tom.

One of the duo’s most striking contrasts is found in the sweetness in Annie’s vocal, swooning atop all the underlying squall. Sounding angelic, even when singing about “bitches and wankers” on the opening track, or bemoaning a “fucking waste of time” on the album highlight that is ‘Rosetta’s Waves’, hers is a voice that can put across a range of emotions: from insouciance on ‘Cycle One’ to a seductive drawl on ‘The Works’, a tale of “ice cream whips, duvet folds, clothes on the ground.” At other times she comes off like a sorceress, a kind of just-this-side-of-goth siren casting her spell with tunes – witness the swoop and swoon of ‘Rosetta’s Waves’ again, or the dark drama in the unaccompanied vocal that opens ‘Visions Of Trees’.

The lyrics occasionally sound overworked, featuring odd turns of phrase that don’t quite get across the intended meanings, like “the prison that language creates” of ‘Into The Cabin’ (a nice image that feels shoehorned into its place on the track), or ‘Skyline Interface’, with its confusing cyber narrative that features the baffling plaint, “If only the anger was portrayed by dance / hospital bed statistics would reflect better finance.” On the plus side, this unconventional approach means that there is a refreshing lack of cliché in the band’s words, and a few arresting and original couplets do emerge.

On an album that, by its end, feels just a shade overlong (closing track ‘Rainbow Thunderclap’ feels a little as if it has been constructed deliberately to provide a dramatic finish) several tracks stand out. ‘Icebreak’ has one of the most marked and enjoyable contrasts between the stylish tune/harmonies and bashed-out instrumentation; ‘Rosetta’s Waves’ is alluring, hard-edged and memorable with its lo-fi sounds and growling bass counterpoint; ‘The Works’ combines aggression and languor; and lead single ‘Maths’ is rolling, purposeful and driven. A promising debut, then, and one that augurs well for the band’s future.

[Crystal Fuzz; February 6, 2012]

Written by: Jude Clarke

Tags: annie gardiner, dead wolf situation, hysterical injury

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 7th, 2012 at 8:59 am and is filed under albums & EPs, reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.