You know what? I get it. Absolutely. When things feel like they are falling down the drain and threatening to take you with it, it is hard to really make music that can feed people’s endless hunger for hope. It is no secret that folks right now want the kind of music that makes them feel like there is a sun to be sought on the horizon, considering, you know, (gestures around) but what if you just are not able to muster that kind of positivity? Not to say that the times have completely crushed you, but what if you feel like you are bursting into flames from it all? Static Spirit may be the album for you.
To say that there has been a resurgence of post-punk/goth as of late is an understatement, and I say this as “big titty goth girls” are currently sought after and discussed ladies of our time. But Brisbane, Australia’s Ancient Channels are not that kind of band. There are no minimalist arrangements that accompany one’s depressed stage. They don’t have to dress any part. This band sounds like what happens if either Ladytron or School of Seven Bells made music in a fit of burning rage. That is to say that if you wanted your post-punk to not forget how to, you know, rock, then Ancient Channels is your band.
The bio of the dreamy post-punk act suggests that the album was “rooted in anxiety, societal unrest, and the tension of living in a constant state of fight or flight”, and if the opening track “Psychic Driver” suggests anything, it is the period where it all threatens to just boil over. The drums slowly pummeled like tympani players, bells like rattlesnakes, bass played like a blinding red eye forming and Bec Martin’s light vocals peaking just enough to be heard, but not so much to be deciphered from beneath the madness. But before you know it, “Chimera” transforms the dark space into a disco of death.
As inspired as you may be to dance, the wordless chorus makes sure you do not forget that this is indeed a rock song. Guitars will burst and rip like a bomb installed within an occupied household, drums will march like the feet of rising enemies, and they will all form the sound of a world that promises not to settle. Such a thing makes “Black Metals” sound powerful. Like an anthem that harnesses and transmits the darkness. While the band plays around her, Martin sings with a softness that suggests the goal was to find some solace and calm amongst everything that surrounds her. Foils such as occasional bursts of static in “Spiral Arms”, washed out guitar fuzz on “Year of the Rats” and guitar riff on “X Flares” sounding like a mimic of sirens appear. But no matter the power of the music, it almost feels like what happens when said “anxiety” and darkness suddenly turns into power, fuel to fight when time presents itself.
So, while Ancient Channels has not risen to the occasion of giving you an album that promises you through and through that everything is going to be okay or even that they have easy answers to how to cope, it has done something better. It acknowledges your quiet rage and fear, they see you feeling stranded in the midst of hell, and they encourage you to take such simmering emotions, looking straight at it, and choosing either to let it eat you or let it inspire you to turn such a state into a weapon, a movement.
Take a listen to “Year of the Rats”, the fourth and final single from Static Spirit, below.
Written by mynameisblueskye
