Preoccupations - Viet Cong

Flemish Eye/Jagjaguwar

20/1/2015

Out of the ashes of Women rose yet another post-punk phoenix - Viet Cong. Viet Cong - known as Preoccupations these days - released their cold-shouldered debut ten years ago. A fire coming from a different sun, Viet Cong signified and solidified the changing of the guards on the Post-Punk front - although not the first act of the new age, the new age was upon us. 

These caustic heaps of cynical instrumentals leave no warmth for those in need. Perpetual winter time. A sucking, stealing of all life. Nature withers. Extra protection required to face life itself - you alone are not enough. The harshness of the world outside your window. 

Sonic bombs dropped. Landmines unknowingly mined. Radiation slowly seeping under the skin - bubbling, brewing beneath. Smog-filled lungs. Dreams in black-and-white, drained of colour. No emotion. Unforgiving symptoms of dissonance and decay. Apples fall, rotten - pillaged and purged of value from seed. The soil breeds death - a coffin supplying death and not just supplied with. 

Emanating vibes akin to the Cold War, Preoccupations FKA Viet Cong build these houses of harsh realities - boxes of motoric function, sufficiently impressed slaps on the back, fractured feelings of discontent. Newspaper spoons; micro-plastic teapots; clunky metal boots. Tribal beats countdown to oblivion.

"Death" is one of the finest closing tracks - tracks in general - ever recorded. It's a moment in music which transcends and strengthens life itself. 

For me, this album was the moment that my tastes changed, forever; the turn which could not be turned back from.

'When all is said and done, you'll be around until you're gone.'