Back in high school, I got most of my music from my local library. They had a decent sized collection of CDs, almost all of which were new to me, and in the summer of 2006 I filled my Creative Nomad Jukebox with a plethora of free tunes that constantly expanded my taste in music. Superchunk, Jimi Hendrix Experience, Mastodon, Marvin Gaye, TV on the Radio--an hilariously diverse selection of artists that opened me up to worlds of music I probably never would have experienced otherwise.
I would walk into the library every week and pick CDs out almost at random, often choosing them simply for their cool name or interesting cover art. A CD called You're a Woman, I'm a Machine fulfilled both of those criteria, and on the ride home one afternoon, I was treated to an absolute mindfuck of a musical experience.
In hindsight, Death From Above 1979 is a pretty good band, though one that hasn't aged particularly well in my eyes. Their sound isn't particularly unique, and the bass/drums combination loses its novelty fairly quickly. But for a 16-year old kid who was just learning to play bass guitar and hadn't even begin to explore the depths of punk, it was a total revelation, an atomic blast of energy and attitude and noise that completely changed the way I viewed my instrument, and was simply unlike anything I had ever heard before. I'll never understand why or how that CD ended up in the Queen Anne's County Free Library, but I'm eternally grateful that it got there.
Compared to Femme Fatale, however, Death From Above is about as brutal as Superchunk.
If you took DFA, doubled the tempo, replaced the bass with a wall of screaming guitars, and drenched it in hardcore, you'd get something approximating Femme Fatale.
It's too noisy to be punk, too slow to be grindcore, and too harsh to be anything in-between. Jesse F. Keeler (one half of DFA) insists on only releasing EPs, all littered with dialogue, ambiance, and interludes, giving it an unexpected prog/experimental edge to boot. It's insanely aggressive, yet well-defined, even restrained at times. It's hand-crafted chaos that often leaves you wanting more, but sacrifices the freedom normally found in experimental music for the creation of an actual product--not a snapshot of a general sound, which most noise-rock bands tend to churn out, but a series of finished, complete records.
If that all sounds bizarre, it's because it is.
The band has a total recorded output of just over 30 minutes, and with their last release put out in 2004, it doesn't look like there's anything else coming out from this Keeler side-project anytime soon. Which may be for the best. While taking on one EP at a time can be disappointing, throwing them all on in a row--Fire Baptism; As You Sow, As You Shall Reap; From The Abundance of Heart The Mouth Speaks--is quite an experience. It doesn't get my blood pumping like Arab on Radar, Lightning Bolt, or Melt-Banana, but it's also not as harsh or blunt. And it's also nice to be able to take in a discography in one sitting, instead of being buried in a mountain of LPs, EPs, splits, singles, and random comp appearances.
As far as noise-rock goes, consider this easy-listening. Which is something even the most seasoned noise junkies can enjoy every now and then. For anyone looking for an edge to their punk without getting their asses handed to them right away, this is the place to start.
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