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Album Review
by SashaS
6-5-2004
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| !!! - awkward name but great toones!!! |
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!!!: 'Pardon My Freedom'
(Warp)
!!! - an ode to liberty is the summer’s single!
This week’s been a dog [unlike my new neighbouress] for new releases: The Streets guy is trying to impress with his Jilted John impressions [cute but - hey buddy, have you got an idea to spare?] and Keane were trying to depress… Next week’s gonna be better with 50 Foot Wave [Kristin Hersh’s post-Throwing Muses band], Amplifier’s debut album and Killswitch Engage’s next mayhem chapter…
So, there was only one way to keep one’s sanity this week - with !!! [cluck three times as pronunciation] ‘Pardon My Freedom’, a huge slice of blue-eyed funk that goes every which way during its 6-minute extravaganza but ends up commanding your body into a state of pleasure. This single is a foretaster for their album, ‘Louden Up Now’, due on 07 June, and it is an ace introduction.
Sounding like melding of BAD [Big Audio Dynamite, Mick Jones’s post-Clash venture] and Happy Mondays jamming with Talking Heads with a dollop of Sly Stone beats and Gang Of Four guitar plus sonic mayhem at the end - this is so hugely summery, I don’t mind the hailstorm lashing the windows.
It’s hot and getting raunchier within the grooves that contain lyrics of no particular theme but of liberty to be, to funk, cuss and diss the Prez and its questionable regime. Admittedly, there could be some more profound meaning here but anytime we play it, the whole damn office gets off on it! It’s hard to concentrate pass that insistent bass that is hitting your muscles with infectious force!
The second cut is also from the album, ‘S*it, Schiesse, Merde - Part II’, a more atmospheric track that reigns its funkyness in to a Kraftwerk-esque minimalism. It calms you down enough before you reach for the remote to play ‘Pardon My Freedom’, again.
Do the Prince splits, nod, enjoy, play air-guitar, do the do - the season of discontent ends here! Despite the rest of the market supplying fodder for the dumbed-downers, !!! is like a freeview of the damned.
The awkwardly named American outfit biography - its membership split over two US coasts - is of no importance right now: just enjoy the music. We’ll supply the info via an interview with the band nearer the album’s release.
9/10
SashaS
6-5-2004
!!!’s single ‘Pardon My Freedom’ is released 10 May 2004 by Warp
The band's album 'Louden Up Now' is out on 07 June via the same label
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