AFCGT: Get Grizzled

Combing some of the backing ideologies that make up the A Frames as well as Climax Golden Twins, the resulting AFCGT is simply well thought out noise. Maybe thought out isn’t the right phrase - this is all guttural, responsive and chaotic. But some of the changes – in meter and key – that the band works out are clearly based on premeditated concepts. What the group does between those shifts, though, might not fit neatly into any sort of traditional notion of song or song craft. Regardless of that, though, what the band cranks out, while not danceable in any situation does have an odd lilting rhythm to it.

The idea that songs function by combining a few different melodic ideas by splicing in a bridge or some other contrivance isn’t the perception of music that these folks have. Instead, working with as much rhythm as melody, the group is able to propel a pretty simple idea into an immense wall of repetitive thumping. Yea, kraut rock is probably a touchstone, but using that as a gateway into the music that AFCGT creates is a bit of a cop out. The idea of repetition, though, lives on pretty strong here. But while the Seattle based group does traffic in kraut related musics, the careers of a few New York bands easily out does that European influence.

Even if the funk that James Chance choose to create possesses more than enough unsettling passages to it, his sense – and the rest of the Contortions – of timing and rhythm may have influenced AFCGT as much as anything else. Of course, the focus of the music here is most certainly guitar. And as many things could be said about Chance, that was not his instrument.

Instead, the quasi melodic portions of AFCGT self titled release seem tied to the work of Rhys Chatham as well as Glenn Branca (pre or post Lesson No. 01). What’s portrayed on this album, though, might not be as lofty in its philosophical and theoretical figurings. But with that dismissal of music as some academic pursuit, AFCGT attempt to tie themselves to the more populist punkers that both Chatham and Branca were initially inspired by. There isn’t any obvious reference to any of this in words seeing as AFCGT are largely instrumental, but it’s there (I think).

Coming most tied to that initial No Wave current is “No Reception.” With its introduction and the fuzz that follows, listeners might expect the track to remain some amalgam of grizzled scratches and feedback. But pretty quickly the track turns into a beat heavy back and forth between all of the guitars. The song might not be the pinnacle of the groups recorded life, but it’s funky in a creepy robot kinda way. Of course, due to the band’s wide range of musical interests, there isn’t a specific book end to the track. But as the album moves on there’s almost a bit of straight psych on “Young Spy.” And if not for some of AFCGT’s less traditional leanings, that song might have been included on some creepy surfer/spy movie soundtrack – a future project for Keanu, no doubt.