aaamusic | On 23, Aug 2010

Starting with the psychedelic organ-filled discord drones of ‘In The Dark’, Dead Confederate’s album ‘Sugar’ is a trippy, surreal trip back to the world of paisley and unwashed hair. The drums, while muted are solid, the vocals dreamy but the lyrics are filled with darker shades of grey, yet the grungey guitars drone a form of veiled menace, and the surreal organ sound brings to mind the trippy horror of bands such as The Fuzztones, albeit with a less campy approach. This eerie edge is ramped up with the country-tinged pop stomp of ‘Run From The Gun’, a truly chilling song dripping with heavy echo. The melodies are hooky and the vocals approachable and the drumming is even ballad-esque, and so Dead Confederate pull the listener into their blissfully dark world with ease as they sing charmingly of the end coming with a sudden and decisive crash. A similar trick is pulled on the melancholy ‘By Design’, where the sweetly agonised vocals and an organ-driven sound somehow create a strong sense of impending threat.

‘Father Figure’ by comparison is a claustrophobic track of rattling percussion and constantly strummed jangling guitar. For the first time the bass is distinct in the mix, holding up a rumbling menace. Nothing here is any bigger than it needs to be, and the overall effect is all the better for it.

And then comes the sonic pounding of ‘Quiet Kid’, a truly angry track with heavy distortion and a stormcloud of noise, the drumming subtly pummelling the swirling chainsaw guitars, the vocals providing the lightning stabs through the brooding feedback. ‘Mob Scene’ is another heavy, if not the heaviest track, instantly recalling such acts as Mudhoney in the up-front metallic guitars, cymbal pounding and the abrasive distortion-shrouded vocals, but all infused with a rock ‘n’ roll swagger that follows with the snarling rage of ‘Semi-Thought’, with its marching beat drums and droning distortion smeared over sneering vocals and haunting keyboard stabs. How this is followed by the dreamy pseudo-pop air of single track ‘Giving It All Away’ is a small wonder, but Dead Confederate pull it off, having captured not only the feral mystic melodicism of The Doors’ psychedelia, but the darker shades too, meaning that even such a charming track can muster a sense of something darker in the sonically restrained verses, the muted guitar strums and trembling organs adding some necessary menace to the tuneful singing, lifting what would otherwise be a comparatively bland and inoffensive track.

Despite the name, ‘Sugar’ is perhaps one of the most overtly dark tracks on the whole album. The spine-tingling chord progression and melodic whirls, combined with the soft yet somehow threatening vocals, the uncomfortable background drones, the drums lurking like an assassin in the shadows and everything colliding in a maelstrom of passionate noise… it all sounds like a Nine Inch Nails track, right down to the lyrics. ‘Shocked To Realise’ is a similar exploration of the darker recesses of the psyche, yet also an offer of hope. The atmospherics held within the instruments are still unapologetically dark and mesmerising, yet this is by no means an entirely bleak track.

In places, ‘Sugar’ can get patchy. It lurches from one end of the band’s admittedly wide and well-executed spectrum to the next and occasionally stumbles in its quest to show all that the band can do in terms of both charm and menace. On top of this, I am a little unsure of the mixing, as the bass and drums are kept a little too far back on many tracks, meaning some of the songs lack a power and drive that could truly embed themselves in the listener’s mind.

However, although the production is airy and accessible, the material is something else entirely: the sensibilities of Sub Pop’s intelligent radio-friendly acts mixed with the queasy intelligent edge of Jane’s Addiction, the edgy psychedelia of The Doors, and the real menace of 1990s alternative. To start off with comparisons to The Fuzztones as pop and end up as a cross between The Doors and Nine Inch Nails, all via something approaching Stone Temple Pilots takes a real show of character and ability from such a new band. As already stated, Dead Confederate are truly intriguing and for their wobbles and shortcomings, have an undeniable magnetism to their music that could bring them some much-deserved success.

Author: Katie H-Halinski