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Have a Listen to First World Record by The World –

FIRST WORLD RECORD by The World

-- Contrary to my prior social media assertions, the sound of 2017 isn't synth flute. It's skronk. Blissfully bleating skronk. In this horrendous year of both slow- and fast-motion collapse, skronk has been a reaction, a rejoinder, a response. But skronk isn't just reactionary. Skronk is proactive. Skronk is joyous. Skronk is devastating. Skronk is spiritual. Skronk is a wake-up call. Skronk is revolution. Skronk is Cattle, Downtown Boys, reissued Maximum Joy, James Holden & The Animal Spirits, anything The Thing, Colin Stetson, etc., et al. Sax may be the primary skronk delivery system, but one doesn’t need sax to skronk. You might argue that Blood Sport are / were kings of skronk. Or that Gnod always skronks. I want to sing it: SKROOOO-OOOOOOO-OOOONK. Which brings me, at last, to First World Record, an album in which The World utilizes the skronk to its utmost potential. Not content to let one sax do the talking, on half the tracks the band utilizes a two-sax attack to further agitate. Itchy rhythms scurry and scuttle all over the place, guitar and bass scratching out an irritable sort of post-no-wave funk. When Andy Jordan isn’t scraping out rhythmic, ultra-compact guitar lines, he’s unfurling solar systems of outer space dub through which Stanley Martinez and Alexa Pantalone’s twin horns soar. Amber Sermeno’s rubber bass and Elyse Schrock’s beefy drums are the sun’s gravity, keeping everything in orbit, locked into supremely danceable grooves. Throughout the proceedings, a litany of bands is brought to mind, some more obvious than others, but perhaps none more so than one of my much-missed, sax-focused favorites: Love Is All. The World, while not derivative in the slightest—in fact, I have no idea if they have any interest in the band at all--share a similar attitude, delivery, and percussive intensity. But while Love Is All generally directed their skronk inward, toward the personal, The World direct theirs outward, toward everything. Over the course of the record’s brief 26 minutes, Sermeno and Schrock deadpan their way through twelve (mostly) absurdist (mostly) critiques of our modern condition as defined by late capitalism (or whatever you want to call it): coupons are clipped, slumlords are crushed on, the earth boils, yoga occurs. There’s humor to be found in everything, nothing is po-faced or dour. As a result, each track flies by, 26 minutes seem like ten, and the listener’s first instinct upon reaching the end of side B is likely to be flipping the thing over again. So, yeah, it's short. But at the same time, there’s nothing slight about The World. Because maybe, when all is said and done, skronk is an ideal more than a sound, or a mindset commonly accompanied by a sound--something like an awakeness that The World fully embodies. As our dysfunctional institutions inch us toward an ever more meaningless, nihilistic, dispiriting future, here’s hoping that bands like The World continue to soundtrack our emergence from apathy, perhaps urging us on to something else, something better. I mean, nobody ever said revolutionaries don’t know how to party. -- The World’s First World Record is available now through Upset The Rhythm. – Bernie Brooks is the editor-in-chief and bloggist of look.ship. *Everything* he writes or compiles or otherwise makes–or has *ever* written, compiled, or otherwise made–for A Ship In The Woods is editorial content, and as such reflects his opinion alone, not necessarily that of Ship as an organization. Actually, this applies to all the content on look.shipinthewoods.com, regardless of who wrote or said it. He can be e-mailed: bernie [at] shipinthewoods [dot] com

#The World #First World Record #Upset The Rhythm #Bernie Brooks #Have a Listen #A Ship In The Woods

The World - First World Record - I suppose it’s time to start calling this kind of music “neoclassic postpunk.” I’m looking forward to more of it!

The World are five people from Oakland, California who write rambunctious dance music with a post punk tool kit and an insightful yet short attention span. Their songs typically clock in around two minutes long and are a wild head-rush of Amber Sermeno’s funk-minded bass lines and shuddering dubbed-out guitar courtesy of Andy Jordan. Amber also sings alongside Elyse Schrock, who anchors their propulsive songs with some supremely robust drumming. The steady beat is bolstered by Stanley Martinez’s flurrying saxophone melodies and Alexa Pantalone’s expansive bongo rhythms. Alexa also plays sax on half of the songs too, contributing further to the complex interplay of instruments that make The World’s music so immediate, compelling and groove conscious.

The World sound like the future erupting out of all your favourite DIY punk 7”s simultaneously. There’s the infectious momentum of Essential Logic driving things ever forward, the arty minimalism of Lilliput underscoring the band’s lyrical subject matter. Whilst the instinctual songwriting of Swell Maps pervades alongside the manic humour and inclusiveness of Splodge. The World use all these lightning rods as jumping on points to hurtle us all into a new dimension very much of their own making. This upsurge of energy and vision has now been skillfully captured on the band’s debut LP ‘First World Record, out this October 6th on Upset The Rhythm.

#the world #first world record #postpunk #oakland #rock #female vocal #2017 #upset the rhythm