Future Of The Left -Travels With Myself AndAnother

Sat 27th Jun, 2009 in Music Reviews

In its previous life, Travels with Myself and Another was a sort of travel journal. Written by American novelist Martha Gellhorn, it wasn’t a pleasant excursion into wry Bill Bryson style observations. It was a book about “my best horror journeys”; a first-hand account of how the world was going to Hell in handcart, stinking with the vile stench of human degradation.

Fitting, then, that Future of the Left should appropriate the title for their collection of “horror journeys”. The follow-up to Curses is a brutal batch of songs that takes a mere 33 minutes to traverse a festering landscape filled with grotesque characters and twisted narratives – i.e. the perfect feeding ground for the insatiable appetite of Andy Falkous’ loathing.

Falkous is a man who doesn’t so much sing as shred his vocal chords. There’s little artistry to his voice – primarily it’s a manifestation of how completely and utterly fucked off he his. Such is his ability to conjure staggering levels of vitriol and bile, it’s hard to imagine that Travels… resulted from a period of considered songwriting. It actually sounds like Falkous had an apoplectic meltdown and someone just happened to be on hand to record the results.

Arming Eritrea opens the album like a punch in the face. Falkous teeters on the brink of hysteria, spitting violently provocative lyrics that are a fierce jab in the chest for Ric, the song’s miserable protagonist who Falkous might like to hurt (a lot) in his quest for “a common purpose, a common goal”. Chin Music doesn’t seem to cheer him up. With eyeball-melting ferocity, he adroitly assumes the role of an alcoholic thug with serious anger management issues.

The band’s nihilistic tendencies aren’t confined to searing rage. Equally confronting is the controlled discipline of The House That Hope Built. Splicing Jack Egglestone’s militaristic pounding with Falkous’ Rocky Horror style theatrics, the lead singer is a compelling despot calling one and all to “come join, come join our hopeless cause”.

It’s this incongruous mix of oddities that’s partly responsible for pushing FOTL’s material way beyond the capabilities of your average noise merchants. Patching distinctly feminine harmonies onto Throwing Bricks at Trains’ deranged blasts of warped synths would be horrible in less capable hands. And who would’ve thought a glittering glam bridge would sit perfectly between the meaty slabs of bruising riffs on I Am The Civil Service.

These quirky additions are a neatly paired with the band’s inability to resist the lure of a melody of two. Yin/Post-Yin races up and down the backbone of Kelson Mathias’ nicely addictive chord progressions. Likewise, Land of my Formers’ grimy feedback may have white noise ambitions, but Andy Falkous still manages to coax a tune out of those wretched pipes of his.

Despite a bit of pop here and a bit of novelty there, the album always lands abrasive side up. Not least of all due to Mathias and Egglestone’s fearsome precision and stark rhythms. Whilst they occasionally go their separate ways, the pair mostly function like demonic conjoined twins; drums and bass meshed together in a primitive union that is the yin to Falkous’ hyperactive yang.

Like its predecessor, there’s a lovely thread of spiteful humour that underpins Travels…. Except here it’s even darker. Instead of loopy references to couples eating sausages on sticks, or pretty pussycats called Colin, there’s black irony to be had in taking umbrage with the quality of syntax found in a dead man’s letter ( Stand by your Manatee ) or mulling over the practicalities of participating in a Satanic orgy ( You Need Satan More Than He Needs You ).

Travels with Myself and Another takes Curses’ blueprint and adds more of the good stuff: more rage, more wit, more nastiness, more spite. It may run for just over half an hour, but when those heart-stopping 33 minutes are packed with more than most bands could hope to achieve in a lifetime, who’s complaining?

Travels With Myself and Another is out now on 4AD/Remote Control Records.