FRUSTRATION : “FULL OF SORROW” EP.......

BORN BAD Records were kind enough to send over this new CD EP from France’s FRUSTRATION after I got bowled over by their other new S-S Records EP a few weeks ago. Not sure if I’m feeling quite the same level of mania for this one. I think they’re trying a little too hard for an aggro JOY DIVISION vibe with pointlessly weird synth touches, to the point of apeing full riffs and basslines from Warsaw bootlegs and from “An Ideal For Living”. Like I said earlier, that’s some of my favorite rock music ever, and when Frustration get going they can really let it fly (“For Them No Premises” is fantastic), but some of what I like about that stuff is the atmospheric restraint and effortless mechanical goose-step sound Warsaw were able to conjure up, and Frustration on this EP act like the only way to sound that intense is to fuckin’ throttle the instruments, slash them with razors & wrestle them to the floorboards. I can still get pretty hopped up for that sort of noise given the right mood lighting, but for now I’m voting for the American EP as the definitive statement thus far (just got the first 12” in the mail yesterday – I’ll let ya know!).
posted by Jay H. at 8:22 AM