Sometimes the fun of listening to music is found in metaphorically pulling things apart to see how it all fits together… a perverse occupation, I know, but when you are a music dweeb like me, it’s the sort of thing we do. I guess that’s why I ended up in a job such as this.
Anyway…
The Zaxons may be a Vancouver band of the here and now, but pull at the right sonic strings, and all manner of British past post-punk threads unravel. Take opener, ‘Keswick Cutouts’ where guitar lines built on The Jam’s urgency dance deftly with Cure-heavy basslines and are then sprinkled with electro fairy dust… It’s like an anagram of all the things you love…or at least you should love.
“Mumpsimus” is a spiraling C86 jangle of joy, wordless and wonderful; ‘Adrian Knows’ feels a bit more stateside college rock, the vocals seemingly moving into the realms of the punkishly sneering, the sonics a mathy indie concoction, and ‘Rhys Replica’ has riffs so solid that they could solve the US’s infrastructure problems.
In fact, Videopticons is an album bursting with riffs, and often they are built from four rather than six strings; as someone who pretended to play bass for thirty-five years, I appreciate that.
It’s a great album, one that reminds me of some of my favorite parts of my own record collection whilst making new music that keeps the echoes of that same cool, creative flame alive. Perfect!
