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Prude - The Dark Age of Consent


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It would be fascinating to trace the collective genealogy of Prude, from the radical lyricism of Chemlab's Jared Louche, through Matt 'Caustic' Fanale penchant for the gritty, demented and distorted, Marc Plastic's leather clad rock panache, Phil Disiena's binary encoded, electronic manipulations and Howie Beno's production mastery over this combined sonic chaos (not to mention the occasional live input of Christophe Deschamps on drums). Yes, it would be equally fascinating and exhausting, but luckily even if one is unprepared to revel in this combined, often intertwining, history of Prude's members their debut record The Dark Age of Consent, released this fall via Metropolis Records, is a loud, in your face testament to decades worth of musical prowess and debauchery. And one album that you do not want to miss this year.

Let the band's name be the guide through the soundscape of The Dark Age of Consent. The opening, spoken verses of "Plusism" that aurally hints at the grittiest efforts of Broken era NIN, with a distinct ambient veneer, puts forward, for listener's considerations or condemnation, a nihilistic, all encompassing rejection of nothing and celebration of everything. It is almost impossible to discern Prude without falling prey to Louche's ever-elaborate, labyrinthine logic and his sense of humour.
 The following tracks seem to confirm the ultimately playful nature of this new uber-industrial supergroup. "Great Eraser (In the Sky)" with its rigid, mechanical tempo and explosive guitar driven passages is a joyous step beyond the usual trappings of the genre, unleashed and unbound in equal parts thanks to the living, instrumental tissue of Plastic's input as well as the charismatic vocalization.
 Elsewhere on the album, Prude's debt to Fanale's and Disiena's talent become much more apparent. "Cigarette Burn Heart" benefits greatly from its precise rhythm and the thick layer of noisy sediment, while the album as a whole has a distinctly organic feel, manufactured in the same vain as it was conceived, as a celebration of the Rock'n'Roll spirit that transcends all genres.
 The Dark Age of Consent never strays from the chosen path, offering diversity only under the same never changing banner of rock extravaganza. Still, tracks like "Knife On Mars" halt the break neck pace of the record, providing a few moments of delicious, darkly sensuous leisure, and "Kings of the Republic of Nowhere" allows the album to wind down with an appropriately escalating acoustic, blues like bend, that only very slowly settles into silence.

Prude has delivered a bit of an idiosyncrasy- an album that to a large degree we expected from such seasoned group of industrial and Rock'n'Roll musicians, rich in the rip roaring guitar ruckus and the acrimonious cynicism. But on the other hand The Dark age of Consent is a total surprise, a glorious merger of undiluted zest and energizing and uncompromising music that doesn't stop where the combined inspirations of its creator have converged. Prude takes this formula one step further, and then another, and another...and another.

Tracklisting:

01. PLUSism.
02. great eraser (in the sky).
03. darkroom.
04. plague star (black light returning).
05. cigarette burn heart.
06. airlock.
07. brief history of fire.
08. scatterbrain.
09. knife on mars.
10. sniper (at the gates of dawn).
11. kings of the republic of nowhere.
Author:
Translator: DamienG
Add date: 2015-03-24 / Music reviews




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