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A Place To Bury Strangers /// “Lost Feeling” /// Exploding Head

If Exploding Head is tough to pin down, it may be due to a newfound minimalism.  With the pop structures that tethered bracing guitar squall to earth in the self-titled debut decaying before our very ears, it is not structural sophistication but rather bare brutality that emerges.  ”Lost Feeling,” for example, makes its way on just two chords, dipping into half a dozen readings of the same pattern.  At the outset, it offers eyeball-rattling bass and a sinister-surfy vibe.  Before the bloody tide rolls in, a dimly silver mist of guitar scrolls in over the waves.  Oliver Ackermann’s lyrics, usually apathetic, have rarely been more forceful, especially in his hurried refrain.  The punishing whirlpools of distortion do finally make an appearance, whammy’d ghosts peeling up from the center, but the storm subsides and gives way to an eerie calm before swallowing up the world once more.  It seems to stretch, like Strangers’ best compositions, past its frame, into infinite dark and chaos.  A tougher listen, Exploding Head should disappoint those who loved what was taut and coiled in earlier efforts while delighting fans of pure power and nihilism.      

1. simonatkinson liked this
2. fuckyeahshoegaze reblogged this from thenotes and added:

   I get your point...track Lost Feeling,...generally...

3. thenotes posted this