The third album from New Yorkers Angus Andrews, Julian Gross and Aaron Hemphil (recently located to Berlin apparently - so they can be even artier, one presumes), features a standard CD length album accompanied by a DVD of three films interpreting the music visually. It means you really do get your money's worth in terms quantity. Whether you do in terms of quality really does depend on your taste, because Liars are certainly one you need to acquire.

Drum's Not Dead is a concept album, and as such, follows two fictional characters: Drum and Mount Heart Attack. According to the album's press release; "they are like the Yin and Yang, each a state of being. Drum is assertive and productive, the spirity of creative confidence [...] Conversely, Mount Heart Attack is the reaction to Drum's action, the embodiment of stress and self doubt." So far, so pretentious. It must be said that while this duality is apparent in the record - Drum represented by the duelling drums which give pounding workouts at various points in the record and Mount Heart Attack presumably represented by the ponderous avant garde sound effects - that's really as far as any concept goes.

I wouldn't go so far as to say that the visual footage explains the music, but it certainly gives interesting accompaniment. Drum's Not Bread, directed by band member Julian Gross, is perhaps the most watchable, combining all kinds of ideas and visuals including animations of some rather disturbing looking clay models (presumably representing the three band members), live and studio shots of the band in action and some 2D animations, which at one point shows a hand taking off the top of a mountain, putting an ice cream cone inside and replacing the top. Very Terry Gilliam. Another sequence shows a rather grimy looking bathroom, with an animated, anthropomorphicised toothbrush.

The other two films offer alternative visions of the music; By Your Side (directed by non-band member Markus Wambsganss) is more experimental in its special effects animations which also combine stop motion with graphics and live footage. The Helix Aspersa (directed by Angus Andrew), on the other hand, is a long and ponderous film of a snail on a window sill (without wishing to be reductive, that is literally all it is).

All of which should illustrate that the nature of this album is essentially more art project than album. What it also shows, however, is that the music really is too bare to stand up on its own. With two drummers and a frontman whose guitar playing relies more on weird effects than playing, and a vocal style which is deliberately mumbling and dissonant, there's not really enough creativity or diversity in style or form to maintain a whole album. While some of the tracks are pretty powerful, after not too long the lack of any discernable tune starts to grate.

This becomes ever more painfully apparent after watching three videos interpreting the same tracks; I did eventually begin to wish they'd taken a little more effort making some better-crafted music rather than spending time filming close-ups of themselves shaving, for example. There is a point at which experimentalism crosses over into self indulgent pretentiousness, and in the case of Drum's Not Dead, a little less navel gazing could have gone a long way.

  share with:  Facebook | Digg | other sites