Largely, samples and Electronica really piss me off. Where’s the musical aesthetic or skill in roughing-up a squealing knob, for Christ’s sake (unless it’s George Osborne…)? When those bleeps are accompanied by low-fi riffs and drums which gradually increase in pulverising power, however, as with the opening track to this EP from one-man Brooklyn project Codas, the amalgam can be very effective.
An instrumental affair, Currents (Crowquill) is an Industrial sequence-fest. Sound effects twist and growl through ‘Follow The Blind’, which begins with an artificial drum section before the guitar grabs the song by its lapels to take us on a viciously swirling journey of grime-coated riffs and ‘Post’ leadwork. It remains as beguiling as it is compelling; the closing mess of howling feedback going absolutely nowhere, yet retaining a curious interest.
The nasty, fuzzed guitar and rapid drum battery, reminiscent of Royal Blood, marks ‘White Black’ as the most attractive track for those of us who appreciate more structured, less synthesised outbursts. The closing title track, however, returns to the tiresome ‘scratching’ and stuttering samples, only briefly punctuated by the warning growl of the strings. Rare, Post-rock lead strains occasionally threaten to keep the interest alive and there’s a harsher edge to the second half, with an eerie poignancy; but overall it’s an irritating quarter of an hour that I’ll never get back, and sadly indicative of the EP as a whole.
There’s obviously interest in this stuff, but really it’s nought more than incidental music in a movie scene and, for this technophobe, as dull as dishwater.
4.5/10
PAUL QUINN