Pigeon

 

picture by André Habermann

Pigeon is a trio hailing from Berlin which started around 2013 as an "indie" band before before moving in other directions much closer to my interests.

Pigeon is a fairly central band in the current Berlin scene in the sense that it brings together deeply involved individuals, in terms of other bands of course (I have already mentioned a few on this page) but also labels and collectives (Billo Tonträger, Adagio830, Flennen, Mangel Records etc...) that have produced some of the most interesting current German bands in my opinion. Of course, we're never far from the ADK scene revolving around die Allee Der Kosmonauten (an area in Berlin with an interesting "social history") and the producer / sound engineer T-Rex who I also mentioned in my post about Benzin.

 

Ok I think it's safe to say that Pigeon is kind of centred around the duo Denes / Oskar who both play in the amazing Liiek but also in Go Lamborghini Go (which released an enjoyable tape a few months ago). Denes plays/played in Benzin and Deltoids (two fantastic bands in my opinion) as well as in Molde, Dee Bee Rich (solo project?) and probably a lot of other side projects (yes it really looks like Denes is that kind of local super-active guy). It's interesting to note that he provides lead vocals from behind his drums, something which has always seemed to me extremely difficult to do and is not very usual. Oskar is involved in Mangel Records which released a few records you should definitely check out. 

Anyway these two guys started the band with Martin on bass and the help of Roman on guitar for some recordings (according to Discogs) before Martin's "recent" departure and the arrival of Phuong, an old friend of the family who also played in Benzin, Gilb, Deltoids and Go Lamborghini Go.

 

I will start the reviews with Pigeon's first LP and will skip their two previous releases, the Crooked Teeth "demo" and the split with Girlie 12" which did not convince me at all (too mellow in an indie kinda way, not my cup of lager).  

 

 

 Well, let's start with a confession, this album is really one of the few that made the biggest impression on me in the last few years, I had already included a Pigeon track in my very first compilation, at the very beginning of this blog, and I was waiting for the opportunity of a new release to finally give free rein to my opinion on this record.

 

 

  Emerging from a well of voices trapped in a ghostly radio broadcast, jumping from an intro evoking the unintelligible call for help of a drifting crew in the endless night of space, Pigeon immediately imposes an atmosphere both heavy and noisy but also subtle and melodic. The guitar strings have this almost industrial metallic snap that evokes noise-rock and coldness above a heavy bass rhythmic that a more or less distant vocal subtly dresses.

All it takes is a short interlude entitled Step, which confirms the aircraft metaphor, for Pigeon to veer right into the galaxy of slightly sad post-hardcore (Nizza), which of course immediately brings Fugazi to mind. You know the kind of song I'm talking about, the one which has such a subtle way to develop so many layers of emotions that your minds feels like paragliding away from reality for several minutes before coming back to "life" with a spit out loud "Holy shit!".

 

 

  And Tiny confirms the band mastery for developing bewitching tracks that magically seduce without having to impose any catchy chorus or striking moment... and it's exactly what the best post-hardcore bands made me used to, the ability to produce mind-blowing albums that are technical, subtle and powerful without ever being over the top or trying to write a "hit" track.

 

But it's not lunch time yet, we continue the lonely galactic journey in the confines of the known universe with the second interlude Rail before moving on to the last part of the album, the two tracks Lower and Kinn which, while remaining in a similar lexical field to the aforementioned tracks, possess a certain deep and icy sadness expressed in various ways which closes this fantastic album beautifully. Seriously how to not be moved by the bass-line and sad but resigned vocals of Kinn ?

 

 

  But where are my manners? I was forgetting to add that this album was released in May 2018 by a bunch of labels I had never heard of (Dunkelziffer Records, Antena Krzyky and Black Verb Records) and that you have to own this piece of wax (I do)!

 

Pigeon's first full length is one of the most important post-hardcore album of the past years, it manages to build a totally coherent whole that unfolds in my ears in one go, without pauses or annoying parts, distorting time in a bubble where sound and space are not those to which the usual rhythm of the ineluctable ageing of our cells has accustomed us, creating one of those indescribable and precious moments that one has the impression of having gained on life, not lost...

 

 

 

  

 

 A bit later on the same year (October 2018), Pigeon comes back with a 12" EP (also available as a tape) called Bug and released on Tortellini Records and This Charming Man Records. 2018 was probably their most productive year and the three Berliners decided to release everything they recorded during these two recording sessions on the aforementioned self-titled full length and this EP. Well even if I'm always a bit disappointed by a 12" with 6 tracks only, I won't say no to Pigeon so why not!

No intro or interludes here, the band takes us straight to the deepest part of their musical repertoire. 

Concern opens the album with a rather cold mid-tempo track with distant and melancholic vocals and a general atmosphere that slowly starts to drift from post-hardcore to post-punk. Indeed Pigeon sounds more metallic and "industrial" as ever and I can definitely picture the band playing at ease in an abandoned steel factory which would naturally become part of the performance.

 

  And it's not the instrumental Bug which will take us back to a brighter side of town. Its dark and obsessive rhythms even recalls the "darkest hours" of the Factory! It's hard to explain but the Pigeon of Bug is still the Pigeon of the LP but it's also a different one... there are only a few months apart from the two releases and yet it looks like Bug was designed to look good along the other Berlin post-punk releases (and the cover artwork got the same kind of graphic chart that many Mangel / Flennen records) while the self-titled LP was more built as a "post-hardcore concept album". 

 

 

Well ok there is Hoisin, the last track, whose faster tempo erases a bit the dark side of the other tracks, but overall we're still quite far from the noise-rock / post-hardcore atmosphere of the first album (the way the bass sounds a lot less "heavy" got a lot to do with that I would say). Far maybe but not totally unrelated either, as the sound and the mix keep both records in a certain common mood that can be matched with different genres.

 

  Bug is a record which explores another side of the band that the LP had not addressed. I can clearly hear that these guys start thinking about post-punk and that the birth of Liiek is not far now (in any case the "conception phase" had already begun).

Even if it sounds quite different I would make a comparison with Girls In Synthesis and Lower that have both also developed, in their own ways, some kind of successful mix between modern post-punk, noisy industrial atmosphere and post-hardcore, even if the result is far from being similar to what Pigeon delivers.

 

Almost three years after Bug, Pigeon is back with their second LP (recorded and mixed by T-Rex), titled Deny All Knowledge Of Complicity and released on Adagio830 (a Berlin based label which also released Liiek's LP and has a lot of cool records in its catalogue).

 

Three years is a long time when you're busy with numerous other musical projects and it's hard to keep a band identity when you're also writing songs for other bands cruising in other genres. And this time Pigeon has left the post-hardcore shores without a look back, flying (that's what pigeons do after all) straight to the post-punk continent above an ocean of modern melancholic punk... and don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining! ok I was a bit surprised at first and it took me some times to adapt but in the end...

 

 

But let's take a step back first if you don't mind:

A well rounded bass with melodic and bewitching lines, some sharp (but not too sharp) guitar riffs and some slightly cavernous, melancholic and melodic vocals... all this with a killer production and an impressive musical construction, Pigeon has wonderfully adopted the winning formula of post-punk with punk accents that a few bands have brilliantly mastered these last years.

I can't refrain a few holy names to pop in my mind... Public Eye of course but also Stuck and Marbled Eye's first EP... those bands that have totally digested the discographys of Wire, Gang of Four and of all the best UK post-punk bands but grew up during the heyday of the 2000s melocholic Portland scene I've mentioned on this page more than once... 

I've had this album on repeat for a few days now and I'm amazed to discover each time a new facet of a track, a new and great bass line or another sad and breathtaking chorus. The best records are like the best whiskeys, it takes some time, some focus and maybe a bit of experience to really appreciate the various levels of "taste" your ears can perceive...

 

 

Because yes, Deny All Knowledge Of Complicity is a full course menu... it's salty, sweet and tasty in so many ways (and I won't dwell too long on the culinary metaphor out of respect for you dear readers)... 

There is so much to say about this record... it starts with a bang with Bad Visions whose killer bass-lines and vocals mixing the best of 70s punk and modern post-punk will immediately hook you up, it goes on with Mute, which kindly reminds everyone that two thirds of the band also play in Liiek (and that no one minds at all in fact), and no time for a tea break as the obsessive rhythms of Can't Cope With It break in your brains, as Simple, Involved, Failed takes from the dark side and recalls some Frustration or Crisis tracks for one of the best song of the LP, as the "industrial" atmosphere of the "metallic" Relentless locks you in a cellar that is far too small for the number of guys in black, dripping with sweat and with dilated pupils, waving like silly puppets all around your drunk self... and I could go on and on through the ten tracks of the record but that would be extremely tedious and boring (and I hate reviews with endless lists of songs you haven't heard yet)... 

Anyway you got the idea: it's literally an all killers no fillers record!

 

Ok I 'll just stop here and let you take your time to enjoy this beauty...

Pigeon rules.

picture by Oliver Niemann

You can listen to Pigeon on RAF#23 and on Oktober First #1.

 

 

 

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