Good packaging is a surefire way to my heart, and for Steam, No Anchor has pulled out all stops. A beautifully black cardboard concertina sleeve around a disc and booklet with evocative photos which avoid cliches – I’m pretty much sold before even taking out the disc.
No Anchor is a drums and bass duo from Brisbane. As in a bass guitar and a drum kit, not the genre. This music is at turns beautiful, aggressive, funky, moody and primal. Starting with a brief drone and cymbal introduction, the album then drops into the a wild 9 minute ride built around a solid, distorted bass groove that is ‘Everything You Say’ (I think – the artwork lists only 4 track names, the CD contains 5 tracks). While that groove remains the basis, a few tempo changed interludes and, finally, a briefly melodic song round out a truly exhilarating opening.
Although it’s noisy, the duo never settle into noise music ruts. There is great contrast – the next track, ‘Steam’, meanders about as a solo bass melody for over 4 minutes before blasting into a cymbal clanging rock groove. The multi-tracked bass utilises distortion to fill out the sound spectrum that might be lacking without the hi-end grit the overdrive provides. This blends with the yelled/distorted vocals, lending a heavy core to the 13 minute track. This is followed by an almost pure, gentle distorted drone in ‘Cut Adrift’, before ‘K’ finishes the album with a blast of boomy punk and then settles into a scizophrenic cut-up of bare boned drum groove, thrashing interludes and feedback drone.
It’s a fairly remarkable sound that No Anchor make. It’s not metal – it’s way too raw for that. A few terms like grunge or post-rock could actually be usefully descriptive, were they not already taken to define genres which sound very little like these tracks. And the duo are obviously too keen on creative gestures to be thrown into the noise underground. What they do do is deconstruct the possibilities of what can be done with rock instruments and build a new image of it for themselves. It’s simultaneously brutal and beautiful and a remarkably strong statement for a self-released band who realise that DIY does not automatically equate to nihilism.
Adrian Elmer
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