EXCEPTER - Debt Dept

If with the previous “Alternation” they had taken the danceable Autobahn with the rearview mirror firmly in sight, on “Dept Dept” the Excepter drive it with extreme conviction, completing the metamorphosis and turning into a dancey band (with the “skronk” cranked up, though), with a lethal groove. It's not that the rhythmic element was absent from the early works, quite the opposite, but it somehow worked beneath the surface, whereas here it carves into the structure of the pieces in a rather pronounced way. More and more Suicide, and more and more psychotic, then.

So there's plenty to (dance) to, starting from the opening trio (“Entrance 08”, “Shots Ring”, “Kill People”), which has an undeniably glamorous quality despite its disorienting neurosis. And then there are alienating beats in “Greenhouse/Stretch” and “Burgers”, which literally tears to shreds any pseudo-groovy pretensions of Mr. Lcd Soundsystem (could he be a puppet?). Meanwhile, the apocalyptic air of “Walking Through The Night” pays back with interest the fans of the first industrial wave.

The only criticism that can be leveled at this “Dept Dept” is, rhythms aside, a certain stasis in the sonic search – already evident on “Alternation”, moreover – where by this I mean the timbre, that is, the “quality” of the sound, which has remained more or less the same. That is to say, the Excepter have sounded dirty, krautish, distorted, minimal, textural, dub oriented and so on practically since their debut, and this could become tiring in the long run.

That said, they confirm themselves as one of the best bands of the '00s (the inscrutable ones…). Period.

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12/05/2008