The Anaesthetics – 1080
I first saw Netherlands band The Anaesthetics at a festival in Maastricht, on a bill that included the mighty Sophia and the legendary Echo And The Bunnymen. To my mind The Anaesthetics were a natural fit amongst such exulted company. They delivered a tight set of sinewy, snake-hipped post-punk a bit like Interpol, but with that euro slant, think Motorama, or even Kent. They were fun, to put it simply. I wanted to review them there and then but they were not ready with their album. Not quite they told me… and now, six years later, here it is. Its called 1080.
Clearly in the intervening time The Aneasthetics have fallen in love with programming. Their Cure leanings now have New Ordery sequencers and Xymox shadow moves. Opener ‘One By One’ takes the atmospheric build up of something like Gary Numan‘s ‘Pure’ and distils it back into a synthpop proposition. ‘TV Celebrity’ is the promotional single and has that vampire nightclub vibe akin to She Past Away and Drab Majesty.
Like the aforementioned Kent, even the most unobtrusive Anaesthetics song is worth sticking with for its chorus. These guys know tunes and their choruses pay off. ‘Space between the lines’ fits the bill. ‘Remember The Strokes’ doesn’t seem to be about the famous New Yorkers but is nonetheless really cool.
The Anaesthetics may have taken their time over this album, from my perspective but they sure had a growth spurt recently. Over the last year they wrote/recorded 100 new songs and selected the best 10 for this debut LP. As such the track numbering doesn’t go from 1 to 10, it goes 63, 30, 58 etc…..thus playing havoc with my iTunes. No matter. I have the technology, as do The Anaesthetics. ‘Caribbean Dreaming’ feels like ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’ after a few too many rums. Which suits me just fine, honestly. This isn’t a chin stroking, musos record. 1080 was created to get our groove on. With 1080, believe me, The Aneasthetics won’t be sending anyone to sleep.