As part of the 679 recordings mini mafia Death From Above 1979 have probably had it easier than most. Sharing already acclaimed company such as The Streets, The Futureheads and The Secret Machines is the easy part, but making an album of the dominant primal intensity they have is totally different story, but one with which DFA 1979 have a panache for.
Canadian duo Sebastien Grainger and Jesse F. Keeler, one part bass and one part drums, you do the math. No guitars here, just an overload of compact thrashed drum beats and bass lines that will have Tom Morello running for the tool shed. Grainger takes the singing drummer dynamic, gives its belly a tickle, guns for the spot between the legs and beats it a real set of balls, whist Keeler toys and peddles his bass like a pimp on the hustle. Already proving they can knock out a worthy single or two, DFA 1979 take ‘You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine’ and force it anywhere they can.
Constantly and gloriously on the verge of self destruction, it ignites and entices you to lose control amidst the raging momentum. Belying the albums initial rawness an overwhelming sense of love and longing emerges from the musical wreckage. Ever wondered where the man turns to after a break up without a loss of male pride? Well here’s a means to an end. ‘You’re A Woman…’ sees DFA 1979 emotionally purging, that is depending on whether you actually survive the initial musical onslaught to reach the vulnerable, frustrated underbelly.
Musically damaging and morally challenging; ‘Pull Out’, a song about the devotion of not pulling out because, ‘you don’t care if you get your lady pregnant because that’s love’ to ‘Cold War’ ‘and if you love him let him know/or if you leave him tell him so/or you will break his heart in two’.
Aside from the twisted love, filtered through fuzz and filth it’s an album ablaze with carnal lust and sex appeal. Lyrically they might hide behind the bruising bravado of the music but when songs like ‘Romantic Rights’ and ‘Blood On Our Hands’ have the magnetism of a one night stand with or without an STD find that fucking libido and dance.