Of all the bands I have encountered recently, few are doing anything half as interesting as The Noise Who Runs. I had the same feeling when I first heard bands like Talking Heads, The Stone Roses and REM. Although very different sonically speaking from The Noise That Runs, and indeed from each other, there is something to be found in the attitude and approach, something game-changing, something that shifts the sonic tectonic plates. I sensed it then. I sense it now.
Come And Join Our Beautiful Army is their latest EP, five tracks of keyboard-driven cuts, a beguiling balance of dark and seductive sonics, and poignant and powerful lyrics. And this combination of ambiance and anger, this blend of electronic ebbs and flows, driving deep, meaningful, and hopefully, rabble-rousing messages, is the beautiful contradiction at the heart of the band.
“One Scratch Each” kicks things off, a cold, clinical sounding, slice of gothic-electronica that sets the tone and tempo perfectly. The EP ranges from the hushed and hazy “Something In The Bones of Men,” which seems to both drift and be driven simultaneously, to the pounding bass beats of the Depeche Mode-esque “Vengeance is the Sweetener.”
But it is perhaps the lyrical messages that are the most potent part of the musical equation, and the Beautiful Army that they hope to build through these sonic recruitment drives is one that opts for compassion and empathy over outrage and reactionary moves. The songs rally against consumerism, celebrity, and popularism; they advocate solidarity and understanding over selfishness and discord.
Is this the start of the fight back against the failings of the modern world? Is this a call to walk away from everything that marketing and branding, celebrity, and fashion tell us is important to us? Yes, it is, and let’s hope that such an attitude is soon found to be infecting everything that the mainstream has to offer. Songs like this may seem insignificant in the scheme of things, but avalances can start with the movement of a few snowflakes. I’m not calling The Noise Who Runs snowflakes, but you know what I ‘m saying.
Spotify
Something in the Bones of Men
Mars Attached
Tune Out, Turn Off, Drop In
