Seven stripes carved into a towering obsidian mass, courtesy of London’s Housewives. I can’t speak to the band’s full progression to this point, but you can pretty much draw a direct line from This Heat to these guys without breaking a sweat. There’s stiff rhythms, booming percussion, vocals from under several inches of rubble or down a marble corridor, and, I’m assuming, a strict adherence to cynicism. Sprinkle in some electronic textures for extra gravity and the occasional tortured saxophone and the recipe’s all set. But this ain’t no Dump Dinner and Housewives aren’t all that interested in revisionism; they’ve got their own smorgasbord of shit happening, no need to dig into another generation’s. At least, I figure there’s a reason to grind the guitars into pulp, to hit the drums as hard, as on “Excerpt 5” - but though the chops and the intensity are obviously there, the pacing across FF061116 might be the band’s secret weapon. The stunning 8-minute intro is a cloud of dust settling over a city block after a building goes down, giving way to Housewives’ signature coiled turmoil in “Excerpt 2.” The glacial introduction is reprised (sort of) on the penultimate track, “Excerpt 7.” That track is the behemoth that all the other tracks hint at, combining foreboding electronics, distant horns, guitars and drums that slash and crack at the ice until a human voice breaks free. The song chugs and sways along, eventually slowing and settling under its own deflated weight, not far from where the record began. Housewives aren’t razing structures, or ascending to brand new heights; they’re reinforcing, they’re digging trenches, and all the hard work’s just starting to look easy. One of my favorites from a long year.
Don’t count on getting any of these hyperbolic effects from the digital download; the LP’s got the warm, rich tones you crave rather than the muddy mess that “Excerpt 2″ probably sounds like comin’ outta your laptop. The band’s got a handful of blue vinyl copies left on Bandcamp, but they’ll run ya nearly $45 after shipping. Midheaven has it in stock, which means your local shop can probably get it, or Discogs has some copies, too. If you’re itchin’ for more, ever/never pressed their debut cassette onto wax - see where it all began.
