Hangedup - Clatter For Control

This is the third full-length by Montreal-based viola and drums duo Hangedup. They've been mesmerising audiences -- by pushing the boundaries of what a bow and a pair of drumsticks can deliver -- since 1999. The band has steadily expanded its strategies and sonics over their 5-year history and are at the peak of their powers with Clatter For Control. Gen's bi-amplified viola rig, linked to a live audio looper, creates a vortex of jigs, reels and air-raid drones, pummeled along by some of the heaviest polyrhythmic skinbeating we've ever heard. An unbelievably beautiful racket that finds the band utterly on fire, swooping and slamming around with varying degrees of controlled chaos. Both noisier and more melodic than anything they've yet put to tape, Hangedup raise their compositional and improvisational bars on Clatter For Control. Eric and Gen play as if sharing the same cortex and spine.

"Klang Klang", "Go Let's Go" and "Junk The Clatter" are the structured, syncopated anchors for an album that ventures deep into noise and improv territory, drenched in beautiful distortions and saturations, the each player listening and responding to the other. "Fuck This Place" adds electric bass by Harris Newman (solo, Hrsta, Sackville) and also marks Hangedup's first use of vocals, with Gen screaming through her viola pick-up as the song growls through crackling punches. Quieter textural explorations like "A Different Kind Of Function" offer brief respite from the onslaught.

Clatter For Control consolidates Hangedup's relationship with Efrim (GY!BE, Silver Mt. Zion), who has recorded all of Hangedup's work at the Hotel2Tango with an inspired balance of raw signal strength and experimental mixing touches. His understanding of the band's dynamics and his ability to harness the sheer layered mass of their live shows expands with every album.

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