Clipd Beaks - To Realize

Clipd Beaks
To Realize
(2010, Lovepump United)
RIYL = Liars, HEALTH, Onieda

Is there any way around the fact that Clipd Beaks make music that is closely related to Liars? I’m not sure. But, considering that the Liars are one of the awesomest experimental rock bands, I don’t know, ever? Is that overstating it? Anyways, considering Liars are totally great, the comparison shouldn’t be off putting. It's not off putting because Clipd Beaks are almost as good (if not just as good) as their dishonest counterparts. To Realize, follow up to the lovely noise spiked Hoarse Lords, is a plodding, industrious, cloven hoofed beast. From the first cut to the last, the band starts by holing themselves up in a filthy groove and then ride it straight into the ground before, after some indeterminate amount of time, the repetition of the things seems to resurrect the monotony with some bizarre climactic effect. It’s like a minimalist micro-house album as performed by the Boredoms or something. Clipd Beaks have maintained the gluttonous percussion that first caught my attention on their debut. Bass too, it's a rigorous rhythm section. Regardless of their languid pacing, the rhythmic pull of each cut will propel you like a team of oxen. To Realize is, in short, a grinding, noise barnacled machine, drunken and addling forward to its imminent death. Clipd Beaks have simply produced one of those drawn out deaths that demands your interest, mesmerizing you into a stupor of submission, an aural exorcism of cosmic proportions. Or something.

-Thistle

Health - HEALTH

Health
HEALTH
(2007, Lovepump United)
9.0/10

Ok, this is my third attempt to start this review. The first two failed based on my lazy stabs at description, using out-there band equations and referencing similarly caustic art noise that has been released this year (and there has been more than a successful few). All and all, this album deserves to stand alone. It is safer that way really because Health’s self titled release on Lovepump United is like tiger at the zoo that must be segregated from the rest of the pack because of its spastic temper and careening mood swings. This isn’t to say that Health can’t be hospitable and friendly, it’s just that once the band bears its teeth you have already lost a limb. The attack is sharp and quick which is part of the reason why Health runs through they're eleven song set in under thirty minutes. That’s all the time it takes for the band to clear away the meat from the bones. The real beauty of the band is in its ability to tie together a full range of disharmonic sounds and influences and pack it into a pleasantly accessible whole. It is a hardcore noise-punk blast of shoegazer pop trash fixed to heavy, pounding drums – kind of like a dreamsicle with gravel on it. It only seems proper that the perfect way to listen to the album involves corralling a large group of people into a room, locking the door, turning out the lights and turning Health up to eleven. It may not be healthy but it sure is fun!

-Mr. Thistle

Clipd Beaks - Hoarse Lords

Clipd Beaks
Hoarse Lords
(11.2007, Lovepump United)
8.5/10

Thank you Clipd Beaks for stepping up to the plate and making the album that Liars should’ve made. With Hoarse Lords the band has created a monster. The album is an atonal mess filled with a rupturing bombast of no wave deconstruction. Gritty and dark, Clipd Beaks scare up a storm of wonderful peaks that are still accessible even after being dragged through empty train yards, abandoned factories and numerous bar fights. Anchored with jarring drums and pulsating base, Clipd Beaks have the hallmarks of similarly deft rock experimentalists but with enough of their own unique presence to marks them as the new leaders of the pack. And with a year marked by a heavy presence of bands in this genre that is saying something big. The monstrous quality of their sound and aesthetic is a force to be reckoned with; the kind of force that will steal away all your other rock records and destroy them. Watch out for Hoarse Lords because once they get their hooks in you there is no escape. A wild ride that only gets weirder and more enjoyable on every listen.

-Mr. Thistle

Clipd Beaks - "Melter"