PIT ER PAT - HIGH TIME

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You get the feeling that Pit Er Pat are being wilfully awkward with this, their new album 'High Time', but then again they are dubbed a ‘nu jazz’ outfit, and nu jazz is all about being awkward isn’t it? It’s a shame because the Pat’s previous records have been at times glorious and beautiful. 

The band formed in Illinois in 2004 and have been putting out records on the Thrill Jockey  imprint since 2005. They have avoided any real critical acclaim, preferring to hang on in the background, touring sporadically and gathering a hardcore following of a few. 

'High Time' is more experimental than their previous album 'Pyramids', and the interim 'Covers EP'. The wilful awkwardness begins with the track names – with their opener called… well… something, the typing of which fails me. The song itself meanders along at a medium pace letting ideas drip in and out before becoming 'Evacuation Days' (the more familiarly titled second track) which threatens to become a song in its own right with a prominent injection of Fay Davis-Jeffers beautifully cute voice.

The album then thins out through some more experimental songs and some more lightweight jingles. The moments of promise are tender and evoke other attractive free-jazzers like Karate with drum lines stumbling over horns and keyboards - but when they float too freely they risk losing their grip and the listener with it. 

Fay’s voice shows up far too scarcely, replaced in 'Copper Pennies' by a ridiculous laughter and then the less appealing tones of bassist Rob Doran. 'The Cairo Shuffle' is a return to the mathematical niceties of Pyramids with Butchy Fuego doing his stuff on a cowbell but all too soon we’re back to the throwaway nothingness of 'Creation Stepper'.

At it’s best 'High Time' touches on what Pit Er Pat are capable of but it’s feeling of laziness leaves you put out to say the least. Must try harder.

FUCKED UP - THE CHEMISTRY OF COMMON LIFE

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Toronto’s Fucked Up are a force of nature. They are leading the charge for a resurgence of ‘balls out of the bath’ punk-hardcore and The Chemistry Of Common Life is their mission statement. Since forming back in 2001 they have courted they’re fair share of controversy and released a list of records as long as your arm, but it is only now that they’re enjoying (or not depending on what you read) ‘mainstream’ success on this side of the pond. 

The members play under welcoming pseudonyms like Mustard Gas and Concentration Camp and they are Lead by the relentless Pink Eye whose rotund mug you may have seen gurning out of TV sets and magazine covers all over the shop in the run up to this release.

The Chemistry Of Common Life is not the onslaught you might have thought it would be though. The build up to opener 'Son The Father' is quaintly beautiful, and when it threatens to explode into hardcore ruthlessness, what comes is more punk rock anthem. It is these sensibilities that allow them to be so accessible, and that should ensure that 'The Chemistry...' endures where their more unhinged peers may have remained hidden.

The album is beautifully constructed and awash with musical flourishes that should satisfy the extremists (not the Nazis, an accusation the band refuted in 2004 after a split 7” with Haymaker had a picture of Hitler on the sleeve) who favour their more ‘out there’ moments like last year’s 18-minute single ‘year of the pig’. 'Magic Word' finishes with a growling Pink Eye crowing “Alright” in his best southern hick drawl, only to run into the sweet instrumental of 'Golden Seal'.

Further album highlights include the epic majesty of 'Royal Swan' which brings the bands female member (the aforementioned Mustard Gas) in to duet with Pink Eye in more eery sweetness. It takes the enormity of Isis’s Celestial and repackages it for a more human ear, without losing any of its credibility. Like Les Savy Fav bringing the sound of a thousand 'underground' post-hardcore bands to the ears of the masses with 'Let’s Stay Friends', 'The Chemistry Of Common Life' does the same for hardcore-punk. A triumph by all accounts.