EUNOIA - A Deranging Psychological Operation

A land deeply marked by the industrial revolution and home to several key new wave outfits (Pere Ubu, Devo, Dead Boys, Waitresses, just to name a few), Ohio has never stopped being an important hub for some of rock's most abrasive and oblique sounds. Hailing from Cincinnati, the third most populous city in the so-called "Buckeye State" - "buckeye" being the species of horse chestnut common in those parts - EUNOIA are in part also children of the adventurous spirit of that unforgettable musical season that exploded around the mid-Seventies, and after releasing their debut full-length, they've proven to have everything it takes to be counted among 2022's surprises.

Logan Nichols (guitar, vocals) and Ian MacAdam (drums) crossed instruments and passions after realizing they shared the same soft spot for The Number Twelve Looks Like You, a band from Rutherford, New Jersey, responsible for a mighty and versatile strain of mathcore. "It was 2017," Nichols recalls, "Ian and I were getting drunk and at some point we started fooling around with Jon Karel's drumming style. A few days later, while we were at a bar thinking about tracking down a bassist to start a band, in walked Bryce Aasen: I was wearing a t-shirt with the number 12 printed on it, and everything just fell into place."

Drawn to music from a very young age and now juggling plenty of other jobs, because it's hard to pay the bills with music alone ("To make a living I work as a bartender, teach yoga, work at a Lebanese grocery store and, every now and then, I even do bike courier work. I have an unbearable case of ADHD, so I need to keep myself entertained!"), Nichols quickly took the reins of the band, which in the meantime had decided to call itself EUNOIA, a word of Greek origin denoting harmonious, well-ordered thought, but also the capacity to convey kindness and empathy toward others.

The first fruit of their labor was Pronoid Ep (2018; 4 tracks, 12:43), poised between razor-sharp noise-rock outbursts in the vein of Big Black ("Radar Disconnect", "Egregore"), unhinged new wave à la Chrome ("Brandon From Craigslist") and devastating, foundry-forged garage-rock ("Rats Off").

At the time, Ian and I were just trying to make music. We had no direction, and if I remember correctly, we decided to add vocals because we were worried that nobody in Cincinnati would be into a purely instrumental math-leaning band. It was a record of pure vibes. We worked together at a pizzeria, we'd get stoned and go on a lot of hikes together. Honestly, in the beginning our real goal was hiking more than music.

The following Ep, You're Not Paranoid Enough (3 tracks, 12:05), came out at the end of 2019, making room for melody ("Resignation Syndrome"), for grindcore ("Serpentine Dreams") and for the scorching instrumental hard-psych of "Cursed Liquid".

"'You're Not Paranoid Enough' is what a drug dealer once told me while I was talking about the JFK assassination," Nichols recalls. "That Ep was when we really started to figure out what we wanted to do. I still think 'Cursed Liquid' is the best song we've ever written. It's about that sarcophagus that was unearthed in 2018, the one that contained that strange red liquid that people asked to have incorporated into an energy drink."

If there's an album of the year or a film of the year, there has to be a 'psyop' of the year too. That's the only award we care about!

Now fully aware of their own potential, EUNOIA got in touch with Nefarious Industries and began working on their first LP. Released in a limited edition (55 cassettes and 100 CDs), Psyop Of The Year (2022; 8 tracks, 31:12) is one of those records that renews faith in rock's ability to refuse the same old, worn-out clichés. In essence, the trio's music has now settled into a visceral and magnetic blackened mathcore, a sound that, while embracing the geometries of math-rock, the fury of post-hardcore and the maniacal frenzy of black metal, also looks with genuine admiration to the chaotic, mutant weave of Brainiac, a band Nichols considers “the best Ohio ever produced.”

EUNOIA's guiding principle is to set no limits for themselves, so if in some passages of Psyop Of The Year you think you catch traces of grindcore, know that EUNOIA also ironically use the term false grind to describe one of the ingredients of their sound: “For us it's a jab at music purists, but it's also more than that. A lot of times the more experimental bands get labeled as 'false x', just because they're not conforming to the rigid boundaries of a given genre. When we were still trying to figure out what kind of music ours actually was, it came naturally to say 'false grind,' because that's what The Heads Are Zeros used to say.”

Described as “a psychological operation” meant to “indoctrinate young people, suppress free thought and spread tactics for controlling their peers,” the sonic experience of Psyop Of The Year (a record whose lyrics, written by Nichols in collaboration with drummer MacAdam, focus “on the lies propagated by the US government, tactics of oppression and grave injustices”) represents EUNOIA's hard-won maturity: on these grooves they sound more locked-in, inspired and determined than ever not to give any ground to the obvious. Opening the dance is the radioactive fury of “A Snide Remark From The Invisible Hand,” with the drums grinding out a possessed rhythm while the guitar screeches, metallic and full of furious echo, bringing to mind a particularly restless Steve Albini on the verge of conjuring the spirit of Bruce Anderson of Mx-80 Sound, the legendary standard-bearers of the Bloomington new wave scene – the very Indiana town where EUNOIA recorded these tracks, before Colin Marston mixed and mastered everything at Thousand Caves in New York.

The effect of this music is explosive and liberating, much like that produced by the following “Mozambique Drill,” which comes crashing down on the listener with mathematical precision, even as it remains possessed by the spirit of fire and destruction.

EUNOIA wage their own psychological war (“psyop” being short for “psychological operation”) against the obtuse repetition of cliché. “Black Highlighter” thrives on the constant tension between brutality and rational tension, and in its most rigorously convulsive moments even brings to mind the unforgettable, if underrated, Phantom Tollbooth. But the masterpiece, or at least the most moving track on the record, is “Introspection: A Different Kind Of Weighted Blanket,” caught between disillusioned chants that make you ask “do you remember Bitch Magnet, their aching melancholy struck in an abstract pose?”, furious explosions and black-metal machinations scattering private apocalypses, because pain is a pond that seethes within the most hidden recesses of the heart.

Cover me in

incomplete

words

never

mean

 

hundreds of lots

structureless

obsolete

 

overlooked

growth only

inches deep

 

dismiss

progress

oversee

 

introspection is a

blanket

Another standout moment, “Leather Lollipop” first blends slowed-down cow-punk with stalactites of fire, then sets off down a deafeningly noisy path combining psychedelia and post-punk, a prelude to a minimalist triumph of guitar.

With his six-string, Nichols can be stunning, dissonant (certain moments on Psyop Of The Year even bring to mind Sonic Youth), but also lyrical and evocative, as happens, for instance, in the touching intro of the aforementioned “Introspection: A Different Kind Of Weighted Blanket”: “As a guitarist I draw a lot of inspiration from the more abrasive, noisy performances, like those of Birthday Party, Big Black and that kind of thing. That said, I also grew up listening to Neil Diamond and Modest Mouse. My favorite guitarist, though, is Richie Havens: you could study his style for years!”

EUNOIA offer the clearest examples of their blackened mathcore on “My Roommate Got Psy-Op'd” and “How to Watch Pro Football”, but while the first track is more enamored of math, the second gives the black-metal vulture more room to maneuver.

To close, the hysterical, almost grindcore-level intensity of “'Saddam Never Worked for the CIA' and Other Lies Your Father Told You” dissolves into a smoking heavy-psych coda.

Shortly after releasing their debut full-length, EUNOIA made the decision to bring their adventure to an end. “Unfortunately, there will never be another Eunoia album,” Nichols admits to me. “That said, Bryce Aasen and I have already started a new project, called Tina Fey, which also involves Sean Worthington, who's a truly exceptional drummer. Next year, again on Nefarious Industries, a split album with Louise, who play hardcore, will be coming out.”

At this point, all that's left to do is keep our ears pricked, because these guys could still have a few more great surprises in store for us.

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