After one of their early gigs - at Leeds Metropolitan University, hosted by the influential Sandman magazine - I wrote "I'm left waiting for the finished work that brings it all together in the dazzling display that THIS ET AL are going to produce some day pretty soon".
And, soon enough for jazz, here it is. Dazzling.
Producer Richard Green, who had also been on the stage that night with his band THE SOMATICS, has coaxed a magnificent noise from the analogue equipment that he cherishes. The people who have bought or borrowed the preceding series of sold out singles, split vinyl issues, collectible compilations and shared copies of the BBC Maida Vale session will find THIS ET AL tranmsfomed in this recording into the darkly rich cosmonauts of disjuntive howl that we all believed they would become.
In the eleven tracks there are obsessively catchy hooks, starkly cruel lyrics, thunderous crescendos and a single-minded passion that will connect with everyone who knows what a rotting city in a broken economy can do to the human spirit. Wu's unmistakable voice yowls "I've never heard anyone say "Fuck You!" to the Man", with a slash of truth and anger that has REAL knifed into its forearm. The journey from the cultural wasteland of dead streets to the temporary gasps of hyperventilated big city transience is laid out in all its excitement and all its desperation. This album has things to say.
It also has a great sense of decaying rat-chewed style that sonically plagiarises Victorian fantasy architecture, heavy industrial grandeur and post-Thatcherite meltdown. You can hear links with the circus freakshows of Muse. My Bloody Valentine or Queens Of The Stoneage as well as the more direct points of neighbourly contact with Gang of Four or ¡Forward, Russia! But make sure you get this right - THIS ET AL were building this stuff before ¡Forward, Russia! had any punctuation, let alone a repertoire. Another hero on stage the night I first saw THIS ET AL was Dance To The Radio magnate whiskas, then playing with local punk incendiaries LES FLAMES.
"The Loveliest Alarm" is a very strong opening track, with that little touch of spinning psychedelic guitar that rings through most of the next five minutes. It's a deep and warm sound, for all its harsh angularity. The bass sound is a triumph. Three more local favourites follow – exciting songs with tunes, but given the facelift of deeper textures and heavier intent. "Wardens", the gloriously sung "Sabatical" and "He Shoots Presidents" have all appeared in skinnier clothes (and were pretty good even in those threads). Here they are strong and relentless. Unstoppable.
Like the more sombre work of the Leeds Goth movement, or the more obviously dance oriented Mancunian forbears, THIS ET AL's music is definitely available for dances despite it’s fraught themes and notwithstanding its refusal to piss in the same plastic trench of populism as KASABIAN or RAZORLIGHT. There is some deft work from Steve the drummer and from Gavin Bailey on bass guitar - nimble when they needs to be and powerhouse strong when the call to arms is made. Harmony vocal lines, synthesiser and string parts are woven in to good effect (as on the lyrically and melodically ambitions "Sabbatical").
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There are a couple of short newer tunes in the middle of the album: "Of National Importance" and "Cabin Hum" which don’t have the same majestic scale as the other songs, but they’re very respectable fillers (if that is their role). For many other bands they would be the glittering centrepieces of energy and laser sharpness. "Cabin Hum" has a title that hints it might have been constructed in the studio to keep things moving along. But it’s still an interesting interlude and its one minute forty-seven isn't wasted time.
"You’ve Driven For Miles" has already been a success for the band, and here it sounds more confident and established - not quite so desperate as earlier versions. There's more to listen to in the deep spaces beneath the strident vocal, and the searing guitar hook is made less nerve-grinding jagged. This cut makes the band's wider musical credentials more credible. "I've never seen young man with so much fire in his belly" is a line that pre-echoes the old favourite at track 8, "Catscan" (see previous quote). This song made such a great job of opening the first Dance To The Radio compilation album that is has near-iconic status in its adopted City of Leeds.
"Can You Speak European?", "Pigs Make Children Sick" and "Transmit The Ends" are big songs to close the album. On past experience they will grow some more as THIS ET AL take them round some more dark corners of England and Scotland in the weeks from now until the triumphant gig in their temporarily abandoned hometown of Bradford on December 14.
If you can see the current tour - see it. If you have a choice try for The Love Apple in Bradford. That could be TUMULTUOUS.
And beware the Myspace tracks ... my CD version sounds like the thick toxic sludge at the bottom of the Leeds-Bradford Canal compared to the dish-water acoustics of Myspace. Richard Green's recordings and the band's performance deserve the best you've got.
www.thisetal.com
www.myspace.com/thisetal
[an earlier version off this review attributed the bass parts to new band member Simon - CD Liner notes are careful to credit Gavin Bailey who worked on all the recordings]
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