reviews

Smiling, at the Hypogonder club - Hot Press - Ireland. 1985

Readers of more mature years might remember when Indie's were "dangerous", when every home studio bleep was proof of authenticity as valid as the surface hiss scratches of Delta Blues records. Obscurity an elitist thing to be nutured; professionalism a shrinkwrap subject to be avoided.
Perhaps it's the new economic realism you read about in the financial pages, or the Yuppie success Now syndrome or a natural evolutionary tendence to more visible forms, or maybe just boredom - whatever, all that's been done to death. Even Attrition - D.I.Y. par excellence on their '84 "Attriton of Reason" LP and "Voice of God" EP - have moved several stalls upmarket. What you gauged from last years' Dancefloor 12" "Shrinkwrap" gets consumated here across ten tracks impeccably high-gloss enough to make the majors wince.
They run from "Fusillade's" Cocteau-fragility through the acoustic whimsey and electro hip-hop fizz of "Look Out! Hedonist", the churchy wierdness 'n' fast-cut time change 'n' dalek voices of "Mind Drop" ("she's a pedigree/without any highs/I'm a sled dog/with a surprise"), the eerie stoned tone poem "My Eyes" delivered in Marianne's Nicoesque Dutch voice-over, into NRG machine-noise bass-lines and back out the other side.
It seems churlish to ask for more. Sumptuously care-packaged, luxurious depth and width of sound - the acceptable face of Indies, this is a consumer-aimed coming of age for Attrition. Stripped of "dangerous mystique", nude in the hypermarket jungle, all they lack is a more heavyweight promo. Perhaps that comes with the video?.

Andy Darlington

Smiling, at the Hypogonder club - MFTEQ- UK. 1995

Lush electronic orchestrations for their own fictious club ( a place where you and me can hear some decent music!). Martin Bowes was joined by a host of other musicians for this album who really meated out the sound. Alex Novak lent his considerably penetrating vocals to back Martin and Marianne, and on 'Feel the backlash' was given free-reign and deadpanned over sparse riffs and reverberating rhythmns. The complete album has a hypnotic feel, whilst also being very 'up', and never losing that trademark stark sinister edge of old. With the addition of the single 'Shrinkwrap' included, it revealed a poppier sound to follow - on their terms of course! Though Attrition work has continued to excel, it was a shame that the line up of 'Hypogonder' split and further excursions into these minds weren't realised.
PURCHASE. of course!

DD