Post-punk is a genre to be enjoyed in isolation. When done well it brings up dark images in the mind; monochromatic silhouettes of forlorn figures and hopelessness. Instead of soundtracking an upbeat situation, it can provide the backbone for a dark time in a listener’s life and contribute the soundtrack that gets them back on their feet. The world is not perfect and a good post-punk album provides welcome relief from the monotonous musical landscape of today. The history of Preoccupations dictates that they are a band who can create such dystopian soundscapes and make it feel genuine. Fans of the first album will be pleased to know then, that in its new incarnation, the group has retained this sensibility.

Songwriter Matthew Flegal has been through his fair share of turmoil this decade. Shortly after disbanding former band Woman under bitter circumstances, guitarist Christopher Reimer passed away suddenly in his sleep at the age of 26. Viet Cong was then formed a few months later, with the band then experiencing three years of controversies concerning the name. This culminated in being refused to play a show in Australia when the promoter had to consider the protests stemming from the local student community. It’s anyone’s guess why they thought naming themselves after a brutal insurgent group with two generations still alive to feel the repercussions, was anything but a terrible idea. “When we named ourselves, we were naive about the history of a war in a country we knew very little about,” they said in a statement and subsequently went ahead under the Preoccupations title.

Question marks then hung over the band whilst creating this second record, along with the added disturbance of long-term relationships falling apart. It’s not a recipe for creativity by any stretch but, somehow, a fantastic collection of dark arrangements have come out the other end with the group’s songwriting having developed on a wider and more transparent level.

The overriding theme of the album is an aching sense of fear, sprinkled with disturbing language and violent imagery. The Turn on the Bright lights guitar work and technical drum patterns have been replaced with jagged bass and warped synth, with Mike Wallace’s rhythmic work taking more of a motoric backseat this time around and providing the framework to allow the three men upfront to explore a network of elongated compositions. The Viet Cong record may have provided instant gratification in the form of ‘Silhouettes’, ‘Continental Shelf’ and ‘Bunker Buster’, but Preoccupations offers a deeper, personal experience, with tracks such as ‘Degraded’ and ‘Anxiety’ taking time to fully initiate before giving the listener a richer involvement.

Inaudible screeching greets you for the first minute before the Canadian four-piece hit you with a rhythmic crescendo and Flegal croons: “With a sense of urgency and unease,” as his disconsolate wordplay invites you on a journey into the destructive psyche he was in when writing the record.

11-minute-long focal point ‘Memory’ arrives four tracks in and it is a song which sets Preoccupations ahead of their contemporaries. Beginning as a dreary industrial number, it comes to life during the chorus with a notorious synth line vying for contention with the vocals. The listener is then coaxed into the apparent finale three minutes in before a Pornography-era Cure drum beat takes centre stage and a Les Pattinson-style bassline joining shortly after. “Oh hopelessness/ grabs my subtle mind,” murmurs guest vocalist Dan Boeckner of Wolf Parade as the song transforms itself into a New Order-esque stomper for a further seven minutes.

A glimmer of positivity then shines through in final track ‘Fever’, and with its Ratatat Octabuzz riff it offers a glimpse into the future direction of the band. If at first album closer ‘Death’ led you into the graveyard and handed you a shovel then ‘Fever’ is offering the listener a beam of light to navigate out of the darkness. “You’re not scared, bury your troubles away,” exclaims Flegal as if it were a mantra. The dark times are behind this band and the future is bright.
Paul Hill

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