As I perused the press release for Belfast’s prodigal post-punk poster boys Chalk, I was briefly perplexed as to what particular piece of the puzzle I could impart.
Hailed by NME as ‘uncompromising’, by Rolling Stone as ‘unrivalled’ and by BBC Radio 1’s Tara Kumar as having ‘mastered capturing the anxiety of a generation’, the superlatives were starting to pile sky-high.
With this being said, from my very first listen on March 13th (the blessed day of the record’s release) it was immediately clear that Crystalpunk is an album that leaves no-holds-barred and basks in the shine of its own crystalline permanence. Chalk leave nothing unsaid, and their raw industrial soundstage seethes with the ugly, futurist aggression of the city where they honed their floor-filling craft.
Crystalpunk asks very little of its intended audience – if I had to guess, the duo share a fair few fans with Nine Inch Nails, IDLES, Black Midi or other similarly weathered industrial noise-mongers. There’s little merit to a track-by-track walkthrough of this album, as this only serves to hand-hold and will ultimately rob any prospective listener of the dramatic dynamism imbued within the near 40-minute runtime.
Opener ‘Tongue’ is an immediate highlight; the track establishes a clear sense of tonal direction with alarming swiftness – harsh, dissonant drones, a frenetic, almost feral-sounding legato synth bass and a delightfully manipulated vocal line, treated as a texture which is just as likely to be electronically manipulated as any other instrumental resource. Personally, this kind of willing degradation of a vocal line never fails to evoke memories of Venetian Snares’ track ‘Gentleman’ – and this is far from the last time I would draw comparisons to Chalk’s seemingly effortlessly swaggering audio debauchery and the carefree experimentation of the world of IDM.
Perhaps my favourite resounding detail is that Chalk’s influences are not so much a blueprint but a playground – a suggestion of a format for their own ideas. Whether screaming with apt intensity or ebbing and flowing over driving, undulating rhythms, Crystalpunk establishes a tone akin to being slowly taunted into a barrage of punches and in equal parts rejoicing and lamenting in the adrenaline of the heat of the moment.
I really couldn’t recommend this album enough – front to back, this is a truly raucous suite of songs that will no doubt ring in the ears of the anointed for years to come.
