Last September, Canadian noise-punks KEN mode released NULL, their eighth album. One day shy of a full year on, we have VOID (see what they did there?), their ninth full-length, recorded at the same time and intended as a companion to its predecessor. Both sound unmistakably like KEN mode, but for two albums done at the same time, the differences in tone and intent are clear and striking.
The older of the two boiled with an attacking rage, a musical violence, but here, though still barbed and spikey, there’s also a sighing sense of anguish. Channelled through KEN mode’s ingenious, angular punky noise, it’s a nevertheless caustic reflection of a world that isn’t getting any better.
Opener The Shrike, with its core of a relentless, one-note riff that explodes into shards, and the raging, atonal Painless start things with fists swinging, but on These Wires things take a darker, more introspective, minor-key turn that remains for the duration. We’re Small Enough mixes an almost Smashing Pumpkins-ish pointy bassline with atmospheric organ, while I Cannot’s heaviness continually collapses back into hanging, sharp open notes and the sort of non-melodic guitar melodies you’d expect from Steve Albini. And while the title of closer Not Today, Old Friend may raise a smile among Simpsons aficionados, its cynical voiceover, lazy piano and grudging vibe suggest that it could very well be today, and they haven’t got any friends to tell about it.