tür cs, the new release from Buffalo punk band Sperm, feels like a single intense live set. The songs bleed into each other with guitar feedback and cymbal hits; I would not be surprised, though I would be impressed, if the guts of the first four tracks were recorded all in one take.
Clocking in at just under 13 minutes, it seems much longer than that. This expansiveness is due partly to the fact that this is the kind of music that stabs you in the neck before it hits you in the brain. Before you have time to react, you’re getting pummelled, and it isn’t until you get a breather in the fifth track, the spare “animal life in the demiurge,” that you have a chance to reflect on what you’ve just been listening to.
That’s not to say that what precedes the track is pure attack. The songs, and the album, are more thoughtful and well-structured than that. The opener, “our great agrarian past (blut and boden),” sets the standard immediately, pounding, riffy, distorted bass and aggressive, shouted vocals. One of the great production decisions throughout the release is putting the bass high in the mix, and, to a degree, burying the vocals. The bass drives the song like a jackhammer while the vocals come across like a man shouting threats at you while he’s drowning.
But this aggressive feel takes a turn just past halfway through the second track, “atomized, automatized, homicide.” Without any prior warning, you’re hit with music that, while still heavy, you could sincerely dance to. It’s moments like this, when Sperm takes their collective boot slightly off of your neck, that the album shines. The closer, an instrumental called “hyperborea,” is maybe the best example of this kind of nuance. Sperm lets the song build up and stretch its legs a bit, and the band is at its tightest when it is navigating these different dynamics.
By the time it tür cs ends, you feel like you’ve come out the other end of something. It’s the same kind of feeling you get when a great live set ends. You look around at all the strangers who, five minutes before, were dancing with abandon, and you take a collective breath, wondering what’s next.
Sperm will be playing live at Black Dots on Valentine’s Day with Space Wolves, Methnic Cleansing, and Newish Star. The show will serve as a tape release for tür cs as well as a tour kickoff. Check the Facebook event here and go there whether you’re lonely or not.
