album // Blowtorch
In the Mute Statement catalogues, A.C.
Temple were described as being 'the first band to really
fire off Sonic Youth'. That blending of knowing
post-No Wave Downtown archness with sonically-stretching guitar
work is in abundant evidence on Blowtorch, the band's first
full-length album on the Further imprint, a sub-label
of Paul Smith's
Blast First label. Blowtorch followed
the mini-album Songs Of Praise, after which guitarist Dave
Giles had left the band (though roughly half of the songs
here are jointly credited to him). I believe the A.C. Temple line-up
for this album was Jane Bromley (vocals), Noel
Kilbride (guitars), Neil Woodward (guitars),
Paul Dorrington (guitars), Jayne Waterfall
(drums) and Andy Hartley (bass). Blowtorch
was produced by John Fryer, with recording taking
place at the legendary FON studios in Sheffield and mixing undertaken
at Blackwing, Eric Radcliffe's
studios in South-East London. The LP was released in 1988; as if
to anchor this to the times, the B-side run-out groove has 'pay
no poll tax' etched into it.
As titles go, Blowtorch is among the more
evocative, and the LP does not fail to live up to the imagery of
that name (possibly thanks in part to Mary Howl's scorched artwork).
Where the band really rip into that duelling guitar model perfected
by Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo and Thurston
Moore, with spiky atonal non-riffs spiralling out of intense
grooves, the effect is literally incendiary. Honestly, it has no
right to have come out of Yorkshire at all, and if an archivist
inadvertently included A.C. Temple on a late Seventies No Wave or
CBGBs punk compilation no-one would have questioned their inclusion,
despite being ten years late to the party.
That said, this isn't just an album of Sonic Youth-by-numbers,
though anyone who feels that band's formative period (i.e. the LPs
pre-Dirty) didn't last anywhere near long enough will enjoy
Blowtorch. Where A.C. Temple carve their own niche comes
with the more mechanistic, almost sub-Goth, motorik grooves that
underpin those battling guitars. Opener 'Mincemeat' has a tight,
almost funky, rhythm that makes this sound like a more philosophically
angry take on The Knack's 'My Sharona'. Elsewhere I'm reminded,
for some reason, of Rage Against The Machine's defiant statement
that no electronics we're used in the creation of their first album,
even though that sounded inconceivable given the preciseness of
the rhythms, and Blowtorch's exactness does make you feel
as if some sort of digital techniques must have been put to work
by Fryer. More recently, I'm reminded of comments about The Fall's
new album, where criticism was levelled at the 'repetitiveness'
of the music. I don't have a problem with that, and there's enough
going on in these tracks to never feel bored by them. 'Yield,' for
example, starts with an over-extended, repetitive introduction but
quickly develops into a nihilistic ride over whining, grinding guitars
and lyrics that ponder, among other things, 'how many liars
does it take to lie?'
The start of 'I Dream Of Fraud', which is more spoken
word than sung, reminds me of Patti Smith's 'Piss Factory' but quickly
dispenses with that approach to become an urgent, primal track closest
in style and sound to Lydia Lunch back in the Teenage Jesus &
The Jerks days, all in all creating one of the most vibrant yet
malevolent pieces here.
There are moments where the intense pace is allowed
to drop, albeit briefly. 'American' is 'Starpower'-style emotional
anguish, while 'Hank' has a languid darkness that could have worked
just as well as a Birthday Party track. 'Weekend'
runs along on a bassline that sounds like it was produced by some
sort of heavy industrial machine, while the drums produce an oddly
primal offset; layers of guitar non-playing ebb and flow over the
top, while Jane Bromley shouts her way through a lyric that sounds
like she's joyously anticipating a very savage end to the week.
Mostly, however, this is frenzied, heart-racing,
tightly-produced rock. 'Sheikh', featured on Blast First's Nothing
Short Of Total War compilation, has that mechanistic machine-style
rhythm , a hypnotic bass / guitar interplay and Wire-esque
lyrics that may or may not include the pithy line 'a stupid
prick'. 'Shimmer Queen' is 'Death Valley '69' revisited, while
'Armache' is fun and engaging (in a proto-Brit Pop meets Captain
Sensible style).
Sometimes I feel like the Blast First catalogue
veered toward the noise-for-noise's sake strand of exclusive antagonism.
Blowtorch is solid proof that I should probably overcome
that feeling and get on with listening to more of that Mute sub-label's
output.
My copy of this LP included a crude photocopied
press release as well as a glossy Blast First catalogue. Eventually
I will get around to scanning these and adding them below.
lp/c/cd:
1. Mincemeat
2. Yield
3. I Dream Of Fraud
4. American
5. Weekend
6. Sheikh
7. Chinese Burn
8. Shimmer Queen
9. Hank
10. Armache
Bonus tracks included on cassette and CD: - the
Songs Of Praise mini-LP
11. Ulterior
12. Make Mine Music
13. A Motel In Kansas
14. Fear No More The Heat Of The Sun
15. All Hail Discordia
16. 90 Seconds
17. Slide Mantra
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