|
|
picture by
Kxngazlan |
I wrote a little something about the latest Sial 7" in my
2021 Best Of Records list
explaining how Sial's music didn't really interest me at first and
how it finally grew on me, especially after getting really into the above
mentioned 7". So I started going through Sial's discography and
even if they didn't become my favourite band they probably prepared my
ears for Xyresic on which I stumbled upon a few weeks later.
But let's first answer the most pressing question that has been bugging my inquisitive audience for at least a paragraph : where does that weird
word come from ? Well
the internet tells me
that it could be an almost forgotten and very obscure English word coming
from from an ancient Greek word meaning "sharp as a razor". Sounds like a
cool explanation for a punk band name (I could also be completely wrong
and it could simply be some indonesian slang for glue sniffing, who
knows).
Anyway these guys play together since 2017 or something like that and
some of them played in
Rataa
and
Violent Pacification
a little prior making the world a little louder with
Xyresic.
First thing first, it's important to says that Xyresic's lyrics are in Spanish (well at least the songs' titles all are, not sure about all the lyrics as I don't understand anything the vocalist is screaming all over the place), which is an interesting fact for a band whose members all seem to be from Singapore (I could be wrong) and for those who didn't go to school at all: Spanish in not one of the four official languages of the Lion City. Interesting indeed because at a time when bands from the Spanish speaking world seem to have (mostly) turned their back on English (good!) to fully embrace their native language they seem to have also become a strong enough influence to make Spanish become another kind of lingua franca of punk bands for some. I'm strongly in favour of bands singing in their own languages (why would someone sing in a language not spoken by anyone in their own countries?), yes it's really an "anti English language imperialism" intellectual stance (says the French guy writing a blog in English). Seeing another language taking English place is not really what I had in mind (Yes I know we're not there at all) but it's a start (now let's ban English lyrics in French bands!).
Ok so the fours tracks of this demo from 2018 sound really like they
could have been written in a squat in Barcelona or somewhere in Colombia.
Yes that's incredibly similar to Spanish speaking raw punk (that's the
whole point I know), Xyresic's songs are linear and fast (puh pah
puh pah puh pah) and aggressive with a shitload of reverb on the vocals
(of course), fully embracing the codes of the groups taken as models. It
alternates between "fast" d-beat parts and slower mid-tempo heavy raw punk
parts.
I've seen Una Bèstia Incontrolable
(a band that I don't like) mentioned a few times but I was more thinking
of
Irreal
(of course),
Korrosive
(if they were singing in Spanish, Finnish hardcore is not far from that
genre after all),
The Juakinners
for the D-beat side and of course
Reacción Violenta or
Pobreza Mental. Well you got the idea.
This demo doesn't bring anything new to the good old recipe but I
surprisingly found myself listening to it several time and really enjoying
it. With three tracks out of four under the 1:30 mark it's short enough to
not be boring, it's well played, it sounds good and it's exactly what I need to blast through my headphones sometimes. A cool demo in my opinion!
Xyresic doesn't waste any time and comes back one year later
(2019) with a brand new 10-track LP (released on
Pissed Off Records
and
Dead Bir Records).
So no surprises here, Xyresic didn't turn into a Rastafari reggae
quartet (fortunately not everybody is Bad Brains), the Singapore
band keeps delivering "classic" Spanish D-beat raw punk songs, which after
the demo review I just wrote above should be just enough to satisfy my
humble needs right? well yes but (yes there is a "but") for some reasons I
don't really get into this album, yes there are some pretty powerful songs
like Dos Caras, Rastreadores Espeluznantes or
El Diaspora and others but a couple of things annoy me though.
First the vocalist seems to want to add a lot of waaarrrghs everywhere
(I'm not against a few
waaarrrghs here and there at times,
waaarrrghs can be cool) and that's a bit too much, it recalls bad taste
Crust and Hardcore and it's tiring. Second I don't like the way the whole
think is mixed, contrary to the demo the guitar sound has no "depth" (or
not much), the drums sound a bit faint and the vocals are way too upfront,
which gives a disappointing result (in my very humble opinion) and my ears
can't really "get hooked".
Despite some cool tracks I find the whole album a bit hard to listen till
the end, a bit boring and tiring to be honest. It will probably fulfil
your wildest and rawest expectations if you're a die-hard D-beat fan
though.
Two years later (in December 2021) appears Nuevo Orden Mundial on their bandcamp page. Just one song and no explanation, nothing. Should we hope for a new release in the coming months? I suppose so.
I would even say "let's hope so!". Yes that new song sounds pretty good,
the mix is great, it's catchy and aggressive and (to my knowledge)
introduces a new kind of beat in Xyresic's history (which is cool).
It's still doesn't have the "wall of energy vibe" of Sial's sound but
it's getting a bit closer.
I will let you know as soon as a new release shows up.
In the meantime....
N,J'Oi!
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire