the 941

Times New Viking: \”No Time No Hope\” (Times New Viking: “No Time No Hope”)

As decent-functioning recording equipment becomes cheaper by the year, you have to wonder about the future of lo-fi. When every Mac laptop comes with GarageBand pre-installed, what role can tape hiss possibly have in indie rock circa 2009?

Times New Viking is your answer. The band intentionally pushes its sound well past suggested EQ levels, which results in an in-the-red, ear-bleeding wash of sound that pulses in the background of the band’s primitive garage rock. When once indie bands recorded direct to tape cassette out of economic necessity, for TNV shitty recording quality is an active choice, a group preference for dirt and grime over the sanitized rock that often passes for indie these days.

“No Time No Hope” — the first mp3 leaked from TNV’s upcoming full-length, Born Again Revisited, out Sept. 22 on Matador — shows both the fun and the limitations to be found when a band embraces passé production techniques. It’s a gas to hear a band harken back to the glory days of indie rock, but you have to wonder: If you could every note and every drum hit and every lyric, would the song be noteworthy at all? Probably not, but pop music (never all that innovative, really) has always relied on studio tricks and technological experiments to advance the art form. Wondering what TNV would sound like properly equalized is akin to wondering what a Frank Gehry building would look like with all straight lines: entirely beside the point.

Bookmark to:

Posted in Arts, Editor's Desk, Music | Leave a comment