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Complicated Shirt - Compromising Compositions Compromising Compositions is the quirky and addictive second album from yet another New York punk-trio. Don't be deterred by their urban roots though, Complicated Shirt’s a talented band whose back-to-basics ingenuity deserves your attention. At just over twenty minutes this album could’ve been one of the world's greatest EPs, perhaps rivalling Tool's structured Opiate and the erratic rough-edge of At-the-drive-in’s Veya. The band’s distorted instrumentation, sarcastic attitude and offbeat timing creates an indefinable sound and mood. Their music is fast paced and sloppy - Frank Black style - with sporadic jazz melodies and blues licks demonstrating cross-genre diversity. Tracks such as "Somnabulateur" and "The Day Of The Mosquito" oppose your average three power-chord Punk set-up, and are glued together by one of the most intriguing voices since Bright Eyes' raw, early material. The album’s opening lyric “the landscapes of humanity, it ‘aint exactly scenic” sets an unremitting tempo that’s only slowed by two catchy instrumentals and their brilliant, Prizefighter Inferno-esque finale, “Bad Plumbing Beneath A Spilled Philter’. It would be hard to find someone who didn’t find this haunting, visceral ballad either effective, or at the least, interestingly odd. But where is the other half of the recording? Even through Sennheisers Compromising Composition’s sound is distant – almost as if they’re in a poorly soundproofed box inside your own head. Their songs are catchy and emotive, but have tendencies to fade out, end abruptly, or are mere threads of what should’ve been longer songs. When an album’s under half an hour it’s risky to leave it so fragmented and under-produced. However, look past Complicated Shirt's alliterated titles and diminutive recordings in favour of their composition’s pace and charm. The cellos, violins and odd pieces of percussion, although masked by Nineties fuzz and heavy-handed drum rolls, compliment the album perfectly. Similar to The Mars Volta's language in De-loused... Complicated Shirt have created a poetical blending of non-sensical wordology - and as pointless as it may seem, you still seem to get the point. There’s no doubt that Compromising Compositions, with its high tempo aggression, feels like a punk album. It's lacking the beer-guzzling theft and debauchery of real punk, but it’s been replaced with comic timing, fuzzy-intricacy and subtle creativity. It may be the most expensive twenty minutes you’ve ever bought, but then good art never does come cheap. DM Manning |
