aaamusic | On 30, Oct 2011

I think that I was trying very, very hard to come up with a way to describe this self-titled release from the impressively-monikered You Love Her Coz She’s Dead, and as of right now, it’s still a tenuous ballpark set of words. Imagine a deadly dancefloor answer to riot grrl. L7, Bjork and Daft Punk throwing things at one another in a dubstep wrestling match while The Prodigy, in their capacity as the fight referees, just happen to be looking the other way. So, that’d be loud, glitchy, full of attitude, and did I mention, really, really loud.

 

‘Leap Of Desire I’ starts of with no compromise. Shouty female vocals and some of the roughest electro grinding synths blare right in the face and ears of the listener, with a dark, predatory edge that renders even the fairly de rigeur dance beats fresh and feisty, and the borderline punk rock riff-loops that segue into videogame bleeps are delicious yet by no means forgiving as they spiral into a world of their own. Its twin track/sequel is a much more violent affair, descending into a jaw-dropping mix of hedonistic party and murderous synth tones, all propelled by the chant “all my lovers are dead”, and with this level of lunatic sonic trickery, I can’t help but wonder what that really means…

‘Sunday Best’ offers a more club-friendly basis, although that said the synths still sound like velvet sandpaper, and the energy here is never below a sweat-soaked bounce as a heated bassline tracing roots back to the heavier post-punk outfits pulsates beneath a mind-bending array of keyboards, synths, samples, rabid drum machines, key changes and stop-start effects to create a multi-faceted jaw-dropper of a track.

‘Blinded’ is a direct descendent of Daft Punk, complete with robot vocals and a mechanical percussive drive, although the cascade of beats elsewhere shows a distinct awareness of more modern club music in a dizzying marriage of styles, with moments of savage synth juddering that would strike fear into anyone caught off-guard.

‘Mud’ bares the vocals for a second in some twisted mechanical facsimile of an R&B vocal, before surging into what could be described as dubstep through a woodchipper (which I personally could get on board with) resulting in jittery chainsaw toned wub-wub bass and a treble synth like a slow-motion detonation of a Super NES. There’s a sort of continuity afoot as modern club sounds morph to another recognisable form with the malignant beat-heavy grind of ‘Legacy’, with abrasive synths piled upon each other in an overdriven heap of sound, all reigned over by the shouted girlish vocals in a disconcerting sonic power-struggle. Unforunately/inevitably on tracks like ‘Nowhere To Run’ this can get a bit too heavy and borders on genuine nauseating discomfort despite tasty melodic breaks.

‘This Is A Raid’ is like cyberpunk for the house brigade, as militaristic pseudo-industrial sounds are given a dancefloor bounce and day-glo paintjob that parts it from the tones of EBM with its bloody-minded jaggedness, but with also has a sudden oasis of sparseness with a vocals/synth horns section (no really) that actually seems to work, and reappears every now and again, in a track that is possibly the closest to accessible single territory this album reaches, although this is quickly torn to shreds by the mind-melting techno assault ‘Pull Out The Nails’.

To close, the blessed-out house inflections of ‘Softer Cell’, where there’s a tone of lulled attitude that recalls Garbage’s first album, filtered through a forest of circuits and wires.

 

I have to say, ‘You Only Love Her Coz She’s Dead’ is as unwieldy as its name. But for all that, this is a jaw-dropping and rather fantastic album that for all intents and purposes is pervertedly compelling. Blurring the neon clubland and the sweaty alternative dive, there’s elements of just about everything in here, and somehow it works. Not for the closed-minded or faint of heart, but there is an array of delights to sample here for fans of most if not all genres.

 

Katie H-Halinski