Nineteen years have flown past for dance-punk masters !!! (pronounced “Chk Chk Chk”). Forming in California when three local bands came together (The Yah Mos, Black Liquorice and Popesmashers), the sextet release their sixth album together. I first came across !!! after witnessing an outrageous support set for the Red Hot Chilli Peppers Stadium Arcadium tour in 2006, already 10 years into their musical journey, where raw ballistic rhythms and a chaotic high-energy performance created a crazy buzz in the MEN Arena and gave me a forced introduction to a band like no other.
Whereas their previous 2013 LP, THR!!!ER, was a transatlantic studio recording, being recorded across four different countries, As If started off in frontman Nic Offer’s New York City bedroom with band bassist Rafael Cohen creating 40 new tracks. After playing tracks to their friends and the band, they were whittled down to an album of eleven, with the first track on the album ‘All U Writers’ being released on 12” vinyl for Record Store Day 2015. For a band that doesn’t like to sit still in their genre, !!! have cited House masters Nina Kraviz and Super Flu as influences in this club stomping gem made for the dance floor. Deep beats with super sexy vocals, and the constant injection of funk, sets the pace for !!!’s expected party vibe to As If. ‘Sick Ass Moon’ continues in the same vein, this time citing barbaric techno wizards Alan Fitzpatrick and Blawan as inspiration for this relatively simple club track with a R&B overtone, before going into ‘Every Little Bit Counts’ which sounds like The Black Kids were forcefully made to perform whilst a gun is pointed at them with the song almost nervously running away from them. Its “pop on speed” sound is a bit of a disappointment, having lyrics that have little or no meaning and verges into boring and mundane territories when compared with their past psychotropic material.
The !!! normality is restored with three consecutive standout tacks which radiate a fever of enthusiasm. ‘Freedom! ‘15’ starts with a bubbling underwater rhythm below clean ballad vocals, which hits its boiling point and explosively erupts into a propulsive disco groove juggernaut. The cleverly constructed spite song is covered in cheek aimed at its subject matter, a past relationship gone sour – “Now you got what you wanted / Now that you got your freedom / … / How’s that working for you baby? / Who was it then? Who was it that I knew?” – then concluding the song by repeating “Did you figure it out / Who this song is about”. ‘Ooo’ takes a nostalgic tone and a sound that is reminiscent to early Hot Chip, being mellower but still retaining a hip moving beat. The listener is then taken ‘All the Way’ into a half French Electro / half Miami Nu Disco percussive dance trip which screams of a bacchanalian dusk till dawn beach party.
It is a calm before the storm track as As If nears its close. ‘Bam City’ came from a week of obsessive listening to the innovative and eclectic electronic producer Jam City and becoming embroiled with the idea “what if Sparks decided to make Dance Music?” – the burgeoning freaky track does a great job of wrapping the two artists together in !!!’s own disco-punk way. The heavy groove laden ‘Funk (I Got This)’ is the pinnacle of !!! venture into electronic music production – “We’re calling this our Ableton album”. Its addictive funky hooks contrive from samples of Mister Cee’s (an American Hip-Hop DJ and radio personality) bizarre yet brilliant interview on Hot 97 after he was caught with a transgender prostitute. The final song ‘I Feel So Free (Citation Needed)’ builds in !!!’s unique dark elicit funkified way, making sure the listener will re-start the album as soon as it’s over. The song hits on a general theme to the album, the struggle to feel free – Offer said “the only time I felt in control and free, was in those shows when we’re hitting that moment”, and this song is sure to hit that moment with ease as it will lock any audience under the live !!! spell.
This stage in a bands lifecycle is usually occupied by greatest hits tours instead of producing yet another fantastic album. Consistently not taking themselves too seriously, signified by the monkey on the album cover that represents a clown, continues to prevail for !!! and hopefully they will now bring their live experience to Brighton’s shores soon as they really are something to behold.
Iain Lauder