Gauntlet Hair: Gauntlet Hair - Album Review

Gauntlet Hair
Gauntlet Hair
Rating: Woof Daddy

Denver, Colorado art-punks Andy R. and Craig Nice are all about fractured noise. Their debut album takes heavily reverbed everything (vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards), and throws it all together, watching the various elements smash into each other, creating odd textures and sensations. Someone asked me to succinctly describe their sound and it was practically impossible. You hear snippets of Vini Reilly's pointillist guitar technique, Animal Collective's lurching, sonic experimentation, Sleigh Bell's cavernous beats, and all of the shoegaze bag of tricks. There are not a lot of stylistic changes over the course of the record; indeed, the nine tracks are all basically variations on a theme, which can be the album's curse and saving grace. Strangely, you can basically enter the album at any point and get the same impression from it. You will either fall in love with its spell, or be put off by the somewhat murky recording techniques. I have been entranced with this record from the moment I heard it. It is a record to get lost in.

The record veers wildly between guitar raveups and more textured slow numbers. The record bursts out of the gates immediately with five tracks full of roaring guitars and deep beats. Craig Nice uses a variety of acoustic and electronic drums/programming, giving the record and very alterna-Timbaland sound, and Andy R. ricochets between a tornado of guitar effects and more ambient washes of sound. "Keep Time" starts things off with yelping vocals, blisteringly loud guitars, and tinny drum machines, erupting into an unholy noise.



"Top Bunk" has a similar structure, but there is a lovely part where the noise drops out to the sounds of treated piano, and it is just so damn gorgeous.



In fact, my favorite moments on the record are the quieter moments. "Lights Out" is a wonderful, mid-tempo track with skittering percussion under an Andy Summers' like guitar pattern. "Showing" has some lovely, almost Caribbean rhythms, and a beautifully inscrutable vocal. The washes of guitar and the echoed voices are just like heaven.



"Shout In Tongues" uses more muted drum programming, keeping in time with the Animal Collective-evoking chanted lyrics.

Shout In Tongues (Mile Marker) by StealThisTrack

Of course, the majority of tracks are loud, abrasive and noisy; and catchy as hell. "Mop It Up" sounds like a cross between Sleigh Bells and the post-punk guitar effects of Chameleons UK.



"My Christ" burrows into a squalling shoegaze groove.



"Overkill" is practically an overkill of pummelling drum machines and nails on chalkboard guitar, and somehow, the band is able to keep it all reigned in.



Gauntlet Hair is not going to be racing up the Top 40 Charts anytime soon (though their first single was used in an ESPN special before); it is too arty, fractured and dense for such things. There is just something about this record I can't get out of my system. There are times when it just gets to be too much, but then I find myself just having to listen to it. I haven't had a record do that since the new Wild Beasts album. It is an adventurous and challenging debut album and hopefully is the beginning of a fascinating career.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and peaks one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.