Exit_International - Our Science Is Golden (Album Review)
Tuesday, 04 March 2014
Written by Ben Bland
Noise rock miscreants Exit_International first wowed this lover of raucous scuzziness with their ‘Sex W/ Strangers’ EP in 2010. A sharp set of shots to the temple, it was followed by a slightly more ambitious, and even more entertaining, full-length album, ‘Black Junk’ a year or so later.
That album was pretty much as good as British noise rock has been in the last few years, with the exception of old hands Future Of The Left and their continued brilliance, so ‘Our Science Is Golden’ has a lot to live up to. Having initially been funded by PledgeMusic, and thus released to supporters some time previously, ‘Our Science Is Golden’ is finally getting the wider release it deserves.
The first thing that the uninitiated need to know about Exit_International is that there are no guitars. This is a record dominated by the bass playing of Scott Lee Andrews and Fudge Wilson, with drummer Adam Thomas bludgeoning the skins in the background.
Whether it’s the devastatingly catchy intro line to The Creeps or the propulsive low-end murmurings of Fuck Yeah! Depression, Andrews and Wilson specialise in delivering deviously discordant, but memorable, bass riffs and ‘Our Science Is Golden’ is certainly no let down on that front.
Where it does fall down slightly is in the quality of the songs when compared to the band’s ever impressive debut. There are some greats here - Nitro Zoo, KojakRollneck and Juvenile Pacemaker are all fantastic cuts that are easily the match of the strongest moments on ‘Black Junk’ - but there are some tracks that don’t quite reach that level. Opener Weird Card kicks off by sounding alarmingly like a Feeder b-side and the likes of Crux and F.L.T. come across like rejected extras from the ‘Black Junk’ sessions.
Unfortunately, when you deliver a debut record as consistently brilliant, and practically filler-less, as Exit_International did with ‘Black Junk’, the pressure is always going to mean that the sophomore effort has to exceed expectations. ‘Our Science is Golden’, while featuring many of the facets that made the trio a band to savour in the first place, doesn’t do that. It’s a solid second album, but not the classic that some hoped for.
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