I talked briefly about Running in my post about
Brandy
one year and a half ago, the two bands sharing the same vocalist, and this
new tape recently released on
Physical Medium
finally gives me a good reason to talk a bit more about the band from
Chicago.
I'm not going to "scrutinize" the quite long discography of the band but rather
give a quick "overview" of their main releases before taking a closer look at this tape. If you're not familiar with Running music, I would suggest to listen to the tape first and then go backwards, but you can do whatever you want.
Running released their self-titled debut album in 2010, a time
when mass extinction and World War III were still just another depressive
vague topic and not an upcoming date in our agenda. Running is
punk, chaotic punk with lots of noise. These guys make it loud, real loud,
the sound is heavy and crunchy but don't get me wrong, shrieking feedbacks
are never very far, ringing ears are just around the corner... To make it short I would say that Running is a mix between the sound of the MC5,
the energy of the dirtiest garage punk, Chicago noise-rock and a strong
punk attitude. What a mix, huh? Yes this is the type of cuisine the band has been cooking
up with every conceivable condiment for over a decade. Put on your bib, it's spicy and it
stains.
With Asshole Savant (their second album, if you consider that
a one-sided 12" is an album, I do) released in 2012, Running gets a
bit more reasonable, the chaos of exploding noises of the first album has
been tamed, the trio's now playing something closer to a trashy kind of
garage noise or something like that. Something that would not be
completely off topic on
Voodoo Rhythm.
This album is not easy to find online, so I uploaded the files I
found:
Running, Asshole Savant.
That's it! With Vaguely Ethnic (2013), the band's found the perfect balance in their recipe, delivering what is, in my opinion, the embodiment of what Running music is. The trio keeps playing the same kind of trashy garage noise they explored in Asshole Savant but this time they add a stronger rock'n roll attitude, catchy guitar riffs and, most of all, a great sound. Yes in this LP is a bit of a rough draft of what Brandy will be a few years later: a delightful cocktail of extremely catchy songs.
Same as with Asshole Savant, download it here:
Running Vaguely Ethnic.
With Wape Up Applauding (2016), Running moves
away from the trashy, but catchy, garage punk of Vaguely Ethnic, to
make things slower, deeper, even more subtle maybe. Running is
still Running, that unique guitar sound and the very recognizable
vocals (with a lot of chorus effect) announce it very clearly from the
first seconds of the record. But this time the trio takes their time to
build up slowly noisy atmospheres, atmospheres which can almost be
described as psychedelic sometimes as the repetition of haunting riffs,
often heavy but never brutal, exalts the brain to excess. No catchy chorus or
melodies here, Wake Up Applauding is not danceable, it's dark,
twisted and dense. No "hit song" either, the album is a whole that you got
to attack repeatedly, from different angles, to be able to penetrate to
the core. A bit like this strange and thick layer of skin on the
cover.
Not their easiest album to get into, but perhaps the one you'll come back
to most easily.
Almost impossible to stream online, here is the downloadable version:
Running Wake Up Applauding.
And that was mostly it until now. Ok there are other EPs and collabs I
haven't mentioned, for example the very last Running release is
an
instrumental and very psychedelic tape with Ryley Walker recorded
in 2018
(not very interesting in my opinion).
So let's come back now to Asked You Nicely, the "cassingle" I was talking about at the very
beginning of this post. Recorded in 2019 in New York, these two songs are unfortunately the very last of Running, Alejandro Morales (drums)
passed away in March 2021 (RIP).
Opening up with WUYFOWTIA, Running benefits from
a particularly sharp sound that's used to punch you in the face with the best of their
noisy, almost raucous and cold, almost industrial, rock whose icy melodies
pierce your eardrums to the bone until your brain drips through your nostrils.
Savage!
But don't get excited, you're not getting away, the trio's not done with
your fragile mind: The five-plus minute track Asked You Nicely tortures every inch of your body and soul until you talk, sing and scream your lungs out... sorry no one
can hear you here in the basement baby. It's cold, very cold, and that
sharp shrieking metallic sound is going to hammer you down man... Wow what
a track!
The third and final track is a remix of Asked You Nicely by Bill Conors (the man behind Physical Medium, he also made the tape cover artwork), and this
version is even colder and darker than the original one. A lot
of gloomy electronic sounds are taking you hostage and your cell this time
is the antechamber of EBM and all this kind of gloomy, gothic and deeply
unsane electronic music. You're totally wasted in a sweating basement, the
party's been going on for days, weeks maybe, you can't move and you're
watching, helplessly, Running meticulously crushing your useless
brain...
What a tape! Probably the best post-mortem release Running could dream of!
REST IN POWER!
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