“Silent, Mexicali's great goth hope, are as musically compelling and improbably handsome as their band name is difficult to google… Live, all four members strike imposing figures, alternating between normal postpunk stoic glaring and full on legs-spread, instrument-punching melodrama. Live music as soundtrack to one's internal monologue is swell, but it's always nice to see a band that one actually wants to, you know, watch.”
--Noisey
“Sing, Ibarra, guitarist Alejandro Lara and drummer Andrea Varela are a truly ferocious troupe, channeling the likes of Nick Cave and Joy Division while powering through blistering punk songs that tend to aim for heaviness and directness above atmosphere. The punchy first single, “Self,” is an all-pistons-firing blast of white-hot intensity that never lets up during its three minutes. Yet when Silent ease back, like on closing highlight “A Century,” they’re every bit as visceral and tense without moving with such reckless abandon.”
--Clrvynt
“It’s called “Lost Voice” and it’s a dark, heavy song that kinda sounds like a more goth DFA1979. It doesn’t easily fit into a box, and that’s not a bad thing at all. Listen for yourself.”
-- Brooklyn Vegan
“... Silent – a band that are doing some pretty interesting, zonky, heavy stuff. At once bringing to mind the weirdo San Diego punk of the 90’s, while also echoing the melodic drawl of stuff like Type O Negative and Nick Cave.”
-- Gear Gods
“Populated partly by members of the extremely dark eletcro-punk outfit Maniqui Lazer and the superb electronics-and-bass project Letters From Readers, Silent possesses the gothic emotional intensity of Savages spiked with Nick Cave-ish histrionics, while in their more aggressive moments, their jarring changes hearken back to some of the mathy San Diego outfits of the ‘90s. It’s a potent hybrid.”
--Dangerous Minds
Created in Baja California, Silent takes on various aural approaches in a high energy, well-composed style. While Andrea Varela’s drumming, Rodo Ibarra’s (Maniqui Lazer, Letters From Readers) bass, and Alejandro Lara’s guitar lines do vary quite a bit depending on the track, Jung Sing’s (Maniqui Lazer, All Leather) vocals are a common thread throughout, consistently emitting honeyed grief that binds the listener to the music and the music to itself. Although the band itself is in its infancy, the members are skilled, well-versed musicians who have toured in their prior bands alongside friends and influences including Xiu Xiu, The Black Lips, The Locust, Chelsea Wolfe, Crystal Castles, and The Rapture, among others.
Silent’s newest and debut LP, A Century of Abuse, is being released by Three One G Records on October 28th with a limited edition of 500 records on white vinyl.
A Century of Abuse was recorded in Mexicali B.C and produced by Ruben Tomayo (Traum, Static Discos, Rocket Racer), mixed and mastered at Facsimile Sound. Andrea Ruelas guested on the cello.
Miles Davis said that “it’s not the notes you play, it’s the notes you don’t play”. It’s when one is silent that sound suddenly becomes the most meaningful, the most necessary—moments of reflection or restraint punctuate the importance of what’s there versus what’s not. Framed in this way, a band named Silent suddenly seems like less of a paradox and more of an awareness. This is especially the case when considering their album title, A Century of Abuse, of which one could draw many connections between oppression and silence. Interludes bring forth hypnotic sounds that have an almost cinematic quality, all heartbeat and boots on cement rhythms with sunsets on a desert landscape distortion. Other tracks take on a more fast-paced approach, sometimes even crossing barriers into catchy, surf-like guitar riffs. Jung Sing’s tones are soothing but woeful, desperate and yet in no rush, perhaps calling to mind something in the spirit of a Mexicali-reincarnated Nick Cave.
A Century of Abuse tracklist:
Lies co.
Lost voice
Self
nothing for nothing
Near to us
If you said
Ripped me
Wrong dream
Damage and violence
A century
No comments:
Post a Comment