18th DYE

Done LP/CD/CS

Crayon EP

18th Dye are a Berlin-based supertrio (one German, two Danes) "discovered" (like Columbus) by our friends Yo La Tengo who dropped a tape on our desks. It sat unplayed for five months and was mistakenly put on the stereo while we were looking for the new Tom Jones CD. What was described by some foreign writer as "breathtaking pop tussles with a breathtaking guitar assault" struck us as ridiculously original, catchy, and strangest of all, very much in the spirit of the other fine music we exploit on a daily basis.

Done

Tribute to a Bus

"This is the new album by 18th Dye. Their second album, if you didn't know; it follows the roaring, noisy beast that was Done, and the shimmering, bright Crayon EP. Now they give the world 12 new songs, compositions that are all expansions of their initial sound. New songs, new sounds that show 18th Dye's infinite possibilities to develop and expand on the basic -- hell, classic -- trio set-up of guitar, bass, drums. It has often been stated that the trio format is the most demanding on the individual musicians, especially in live situations, since nobody can hide behind the wall-of-sound. Everybody has to be on the edge. And on the edge 18th Dye are live, as anyone who has ever seen them play will willingly testify.

"The opener on this album, "Glass House Failure," has indeed also been the opener of many an 18th Dye gig in recent times. This track could easily have been dubbed a "beginners' guide to 18th Dye," showing the band's basic musical building blocks, starting with some truly pretty guitar lines that gradually progress into hard-hitting noise-rock and distortion. It clearly states their purpose -- a dedication to minimalism. The track is also, incidentally, their first instrumental. It has the effect of leaving the listener wanting more, somehow giving promise of great things ahead.

"Up next comes a surprise, the very melancholic "Sole Arch," with sad lyrics about isolations and not connecting. The somber organ and sparse, minimal drums give this song a nice contemporary chamber music-like feel. This track is sort of an expansion on the lo-fi ballad style 18th Dye produced on the Crayon EP. "Only Burn," on the other hand, is one of the album's more lively, poppy tracks with the dynamics of white noise. Where a lot of groups use noise as an effect to put over the song, 18th Dye use noise as a structure from which sound is built, from which the music is composed.

"Label" is another ballad with some very controlled, almost understated use of feedback. It also features my favorite lyric on the album, the great one-liner "fuck me after dark or before." Now, this notion of sex seems to me to be a recurring theme of this record, like the demand/plea in the chorus of "Play w/ You," the aforementioned line in the pretty damn sexy "Label" and in tons of other tunes to come. But sex seems to be something casual, almost an aside, an idea of something that can break down our mundane realities in bursts of ecstasy, like the music itself. There seems to be very few people actually having sex with each other in these songs. It is more of an idea, an inherent possibility.

"The last song on the first side (yes, vinyl STILL rules, motherfucker) is the wonderfully wacky, impossible track entitled "No time/11 (Spectators)" that starts off as a symphony of noise, only at the end breaking into more rudimentary song structures. It shows 18th Dye's ability to transform the traditional concepts of "song" and "rock."

"Side two opens with the sly "Poolhouse Blues," featuring Heike on lead vocal. At almost seven minutes, this is the longest track 18th Dye have ever committed to plastic. More than anything, this shows the band's ability to play around song structures while staying close to their basic, minimal building blocks. Note the weird break in the middle.

The second song, simply entitled "Go!Song," is a pop song. It features cool dual lead vocals by Sebastian and Heike, albeit with different lyrics, singing the inspirational lines "we're so fed up/know what to wear" and "we are bored/by what they wear," respectively. This song says more about "young abuse" than any thesis I know of.

"D." is a punk rock song, sort of a "Can You Wink Pt. 2." This song on the album comes closest to that initial sound that brought fame to 18th Dye (circa Done). It confirms how the band has really always worked with the aesthetics of punk rock. Their attitude and their minimalist framework is based on the element of punk, thrown up and changed around, rearranged and recontextualized, totally contemporary and metropolitan. This is somehow hinted at in the lyrics of "Galeer": "So long guitars in hi-fi/ mono fucked tunes." This song, by the way, features Pier on lead vocal, another innovation, and it stands as a declaration of principles. Perhaps.

"Ever the masters of suspense, they next offer up the tense, spooky "Mitsuo Downer," mercifully injected with small burst of aggression, leaving us desperately longing for a climax. Then the record ends with the suave "Easy (& How We Got there 1st)." This stylish tune shuffles along on an upbeat note before ending in a majestic rave-up, 18th Dye-style.

"This album shows the expansion of 18th Dye's very special, and dare I say, very European music. The compact, yet never complex, construction of the songs and sounds somehow remind me of contemporary compostionary music -- a usage of melody, punk and noise that is the minimal art of 18th Dye. A music that reminds me of our bodies and how we use them, and how we use -- and need -- music. This is the new album by 18th Dye. This is hip."

-- Simon Sheikh, Cloudland Records