Health : 'Get Colour'
Released: Out Now!!!
Label: City Slang/Cooperative
Health, where to start? They are one of those bands loved by everyone who comes across them but the number of people who do may well be sadly limited within their own time, as it is with all truly great, forward thinking bands. Their debut, HEALTH, became somewhat of a cult phenomenon upon release, especially as Crystal Castles used their remix of “Crimewave” as the third track on their brilliantly chaotic debut. Full of thundering, droning noise alongside moments of abstract ambient bliss, drawing to mind influences from Botch and Dillinger Escape plan to ambient maestros Boards Of Canada, alongside their legions of contemporaries pouring out of LA’s The Smell, such as No Age, Mika Miko etc.
Health, though, are very quickly becoming greater than the sum of their whole as well as their peers as with “Get Colour” they have truly come into their own as artists. Opening with the brief blast of ‘In Heat’ featuring shimmering and deafening electronics simultaneously over thumping drums, which rapidly develop into off-key time signatures and stop/start motions. No gentle starts here. Immediately after we are dropped straight into the middle of what is possibly Health’s masterpiece to date, ‘Die Slow’. With it’s pulsating electronics simmering away under gritty guitar lines and haunting vocals. Special.
‘Nice Girls’ is a beautiful piece of menacing ambience underpinned by a drum pattern that seems so intense as to be liable to result in the arms falling off mere mortal drummers. ‘Death+’ focuses around an odd, off key synthesised melody keeping the rhythm together, while vocals, drums and electronics all build in intensity until descending into a mixture of screams and distortion intertwined with clear, calm moments of hypnotic vocal rhythms. ‘Before Tigers’ is a clash of reverb-drenched, echo-laden guitar work over remarkably withheld drumming from Ben.
The calm before the storm, one might argue. You’d be right. ‘Severin’ opens in a hailstorm of distortion, rapidfire drumming and wild screaming from anyone who happened to be near a microphone at the time. A minute in, however, and we’re back to something a bit more in theme with the album around it, with the traditional drums of thunder, vocal atmospherics, and mixture of guitar and electronic wizardy to create a backdrop noise and wonder before going out in a three second blaze intensified glory. The delightfully titled ‘Eat Flesh’ takes somewhat after ‘Death+’ with queer looped electronics and tangents. Though imagine if ‘Death+ was your older sibling with avant garde, exciting music tastes, ‘Eat Flesh’ is your slightly deranged friend from down the road who scares you slightly, though in a strangely exhilarating way. In all honesty, there are enough ideas in this song alone to make up an average bands career, and more than enough to cause the collective minds of James Blunt, David Gray and the Stereophonics to explode in a sea of claret as, for one brief moment, they experience true creativity.
Penultimately, we are treated to the magnificent ‘We Are Water’, which, frankly, is quite possibly my track of the year up to this moment, standing above even the triumphs of ‘Die Slow’ for me. I won’ t do it any injustice by trying to describe it, just hit up itunes, your nearest record store, your favourite blog, my blog, spotify, anything, and tune in.
And so, to the close. We are left in the hold of the six minute ‘In Violet' which floats you gently away on a sea of restrained guitar and electronics loops with understated drumming and vocals before it is over, just like that. Undeniably, one of the most remarkable half hours you will have all year.
Words: James Hoste
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