Boo And Boo Too – No Tempo
Now here’s an interesting record courtesy of Boo And Boo Too from Kansas. Their debut ‘No Tempo’ is basically the sound of rock songs being demolished by a bulldozer. Yet within these crumbling walls of deconstructed rock can be found traces of beauty.
‘I Know Nothing’s All Right’ sees the music collapsing aroud the band as helpless cries of group members can be heard whilst the debris piles above them. ‘I’ll Be Your Whore’ and ‘Sometmes At Night’ are less fragmented examples and use strident guitars to force the message home; the end result possibly creating the missing link between Broken Social Scene and the drunken tears of The Walkmen.
The pattern for much of ‘No Tempo’ is that each track has to been torn apart so much, that by the time it ends, only fragments of the original song remain. The effects are particularly memorable on ‘Bottom Of The Lake’ wheer the odd mixing suggest that much of the music is played in backwards sequence whereas the title track is thrust into My Bloody Valentine’s effects pedals. Unsurprisingly there is a distinct shoegazing influence to the record but there’s just as many pointers to indie and punk, with the latter genre being particularly relevant for the chaotic ‘White Light, Dark Sheets’.
Despite (or perhaps because of) the discord and dissonance, Boo And Boo Too sound like they’re on to something new here and the album excites and enthralls with its sheer experimentation. Due to the emotions and punishing noise though, by the end of the record it’s hard not to feel exhausted by the whole experience.
More of Jon’s Reviews can be found at his blog, Leonards Lair