Glaas is an international band from Berlin, Germany, featuring five
ladies and gentlemen who all together have a rather very long curriculum
vitae... There is Seth (American, guitar) who has played in numerous
bands from numerous genres including
Clock Of Time,
Couteau Latex,
Useless Eaters,
Idiota Civilizzato,
Life Trap
(I love Life Trap!) and many more (these days he is involved in an
electronic hip hop project called
Blaq Hammer
and in a no-wave/post-punk act called
ÖPNV)... there is Raquel (Spanish, bass) who has played in
Tortura,
Owner,
Retrofuture, her own solo project called
Lacquer
and plenty of other bands... there is Alexis (german?, vocals) from
the furious
Cage Kicker, there is Cosey (german, synth) from
DAS DAS
who also released a solo tape last year called
Interior Escapes
and there is Jan the drummer who was also behind the drums in
Idiota Civilizzato
and
Life Fucker.
Yes on paper Glaas does look like a "super group" or an
"all-star punk band" and we know that the result, although almost
always making labels extremely happy, can very quickly turn into a
pompous show-off where everyone tries to justify their "reputation" by
overdoing it (I have in mind the example of a 7", recently released on
the same label as the group which interests us today, yuck) but let's
not give in to the ease of prejudice, let's open our minds and ears and listen carefully to these
first three tracks, a little appetizer before the release of a LP in a
few months.
Easy Living was probably the obvious song to choose for a
promo tape, it's not "surprising" in the sense that you know you've heard that kind of stuff before but you also remember enjoying it a lot. It's a very good catchy
bass-driven song mixing modern post-punk influences (Sarcasm, Clock Of Time and even
Negative Space
at times) with old classics like Crisis and
Uk Decay (the "punk period"). Lead by Alexis' vocals,
which remain quite "punk" (if that means anything), the mix lets the
upfront guitar build the melody whereas the synth stays in the
background... and that works really well! That's exactly the kind of
"post-punk" I like to listen to!
All this remains rather similar on I'm The Problem and
Concrete Coffin (even if Alexis' vocals get even more
aggressive, which is not to my displeasure) with the exception of the
synth which gets more in the way of the guitar, building melodies of
its own, a very fashionable symptom nowadays which can really quickly
lead to some synth-punk bullshit if you're not cautious (I hate
synth-punk)... and Concrete Coffin for example is clearly
approaching my tolerance limit in terms of synth melodies...
So you got the idea, Glaas proved being able to make a great
songs of "predictable" post-punk and may give birth to one of the best
European album of the genre in 2022 (and I'm sure the hype around it
is going to be absolutely massive anyway) but it will find grace in my
eyes only if the whole holds the road in a certain diversity (that
should be fine in view of these three tracks) but especially if the
majority of the songs are not built around upfront synth melodies...
but that's probably just me and my old allergy to "new wave".
Anyway the best way to have a good preview of what's will be in the
LP is to watch this livestream concert with Pigeon (Pigeon rules!) recorded at
SO36 last August (and it's true that it's rather promising):
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