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Album Reviews : No Anchor – Golden Bridge

By on December 6, 2012

No Anchor are back with another record. The 37 minute Golden Bridge sees some stock and standard No Anchor, but also contains a few surprises. In case you’re wondering who the hell No Anchor are, they are a double bass wielding (as in they have two bass players) sludge band, who can also be pretty noisy, and they come from Brisbane. They seem to do pretty well for themselves, and they really like the “pay what you want option” on Bandcamp.

The album starts out with the prelude “FTB”, which features some soft vocals evoking a list of “fuck this, fuck that”, including the final line “Fuck No Anchor”. Tongue in cheek no doubt, the whole song has some weird “It’s Her Factory” kind of sound. The unusual electronic elements return later on the album in songs like “Electricity”, and “Woodman” (though less so). “Electricity” is roughly halfway into the album, and is an unexpected left turn, followed by the quiet opening of “Woodman”, which helps to subdue the glaring unusualness that is “Electricity”. It is well and truly these three tracks that make this album different. Real Pain Supernova was a collection of songs locked into the same style, drifting occasionally to the right or the left of a centre line. Here “FTB”, “Electricity” and to a small extent “Woodman” represent No Anchor driving right off the road and into the open fields of  not giving a fuck. However, despite these short interruptions to the harsh fuzz that No Anchor fans no doubt crave, the album still melds together cohesively.

On this album No Anchor is keen the show off their appreciation for some obvious and not so obvious  musical heroes. “Slack Sabbath” is a painfully obvious homage, while “Oh Kill”, a short ninety second fuck you to Australian nationalism,  is a clever portmanteau of the Fugazi songs “Oh” and “The Kill”. I’ll be damn surprised if that wasn’t on purpose. However most of the album is ‘standard’ No Anchor. Not that anyone should be complaining, No Anchor make fuzzed out angry sludge music, and they do it well, but this fact is made obvious by the soothing electronic banalities of songs like “FTB” and “Electricity”. The placement of those two tracks on the album gives a reference point, and from it the No Anchor musical methodology is made apparent. This could have one of two effects on the listener’s listening experience: they can be sickened at the repetitive stylistic nature of No Anchor (which all bands are and should be guilty of) or appreciate all the little differences that make each song slightly unique, differences in pacing, dynamic and tone. Personally, the latter is what occurred and this album remains a solidly enjoyable record. Heavy, loud, noisy, sludgy and not always completely serious, this album is No Anchor with a little twist, a familiar and yet refreshing experience.

Band: No Anchor
Album: Golden Bridge
Year: 2012
Genre: Sludge Metal
Label: Independent
Origin: Brisbane, Australia
www.noanchorband.com

Track Listing:
FTB
Slack Sabbath
Anna
Loose Gravel
One Means
Electricity
Woodman
Oh Kill
Slabs
Shut Yr Mouth

About

In between a busy schedule of studying, procrastination and sleeping Duncan sometimes writes album reviews. When not pretending to know things about music, he pretends to know things about the world over at Sudden Reason.