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ALBUM REVIEW: Supercluster – JAAW

JAAW create noisy and abrasive industrial rock that still has an accessible nature to it and is packed full of utterly massive riffs and beats and on their debut album Supercluster they combine these elements into eight immersive, discordant and ultimately memorable songs. The group count THERAPY?‘s Andy Cairns, SEX SWING‘s Jason Stoll, BIG LAD/PETBRICK‘s Wayne Adams and THREE TRAPPED TIGERSAdam Betts as their members, with the individual initials of each giving the band its name, and they are on a mission to create a vital sounding industrialised noise odyssey. It’s a mission they certainly succeed at here.

The members’ varied musical backgrounds acts as a bit of a guide to what the band will sound like; THERAPY? used massive sounding industrial and hip-hop style breakbeats that could break heads at earlier points in their career and the same sort of style is employed here with awesome results. That’s also something BIG LAD and PETBRICK do well, while SEX SWING‘s noise-laden aural assault plays a big part too and of course you can filter in the influence of the forward-thinking music of GOLDIE and SQUAREPUSHER – both of whom Betts has worked with – for good measure on the electronic side of things.

JAAW also add in some other influences to their music as well, with the likes of  GODFLESH, MINISTRY, BIG BLACK and even THROBBING GRISTLE at points acting as handy starting points for the noise that the band make. With all that taken into account though, it must be said that JAAW are very much their own entity and this comes across perfectly in the songs on Supercluster.

The opening track Thoughts And Prayers (Mean Nothing) sets up exactly what this band are about from the get go with sheets of discordant noise blasting out and the whole feeling of listening is that of some sort of disorientation, in the best possible way. From then on in, things get even heavier and vibrant, from the pounding beats of Reality Crash, the noisy and swirling haze of Rot and the brutally upbeat Total Protonic Reversal, to the epic Bring Home The Motherlode, Barry, the hardcore maelstrom of Hellbent On Happiness and the more experimental The Dead Drop, every track sounds joyously vital.

Supercluster ends with a fiery cover of Army Of Me by BJORK, a song that’s been covered by HELMET and SKUNK ANANSIE (with BJORK herself) in the past, and JAAW definitely put their own spin on it. It’s a fine way to round things off.

Supercluster is an album that will make your head spin with its noise-laden brilliance, but it is also an album with so many ideas, all of which are perfectly executed. It is a record all the members should be rightly proud of and hopefully will be the start of more things to come from JAAW.

Rating: 8/10

Supercluster - JAAW

Supercluster is set for release on May 26th via Svart Records.

Follow JAAW on Bandcamp.

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