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While the trio is a fairly standard rock combo, Liars are far from
making standard rock music. Primal, often atonal and with drums beating
out a single motif rather than yer standard rock 'beat', Drum's Not
Dead sets out to challenge rather than comfort the listener. Which
means you won't always enjoy it - unless you enjoy the challenge of
listening to deliberately 'difficult' music.
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.
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