Kisschasy - Seizures

Thu 17th Sep, 2009 in Music Reviews

On the one hand, Seizures is a huge step up for Australia’s favourite guitar-pop outfit; it’s sonically impressive, lyrically self-assured and musically ambitious. But by the same token, it is undeniably a Kisschasy record. When some bands decide to switch genres (Little Birdy) or writing style (Red Riders), you can actually hear echoes of the seminal groups they are aping in their work. By contrast, this album, by far the closest to grunge you’re ever going to get from the masters of melody, does not sound a bunch of Victorians trying to be Pearl Jam. If you can picture how radically international acts like Kings Of Leon and Franz Ferdinand have altered their sound, yet still retained their signature style, you’ll get a good idea of what Seizures is all about.

Written in response to a series of patients in Oliver Sacks’ psychological casebook The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat who had – œbrain seizures’ and started hearing music, this album is all about Darren Cordeux writing tracks that form lasting impressions. As lead single Generation Why attests, this is something he’s particularly good at doing.

Very few A&R people would predict that kids would be bouncing up and down singing about how they’re “feeling negative it’s the best” and “being “so happy that I’m depressed.” But that’s precisely what makes Kisschasy so vital; they eschew that – œonce more with feeling’ dogma because they breathe life, sex, cynicism and self-doubt into every radio-ready note. Similarly, it’s unlikely a group like Short Stack, also burning up the charts of late, could make a huge pop chorus with the words “We all need to be alone.” Thus Kisschasy don’t just represent a disaffected generation, they are that generation, and it shows all over this professional album number three.

This is one release that benefits from a really good set of speakers. With help from L.A. super-producer Rob Schnapf, Kisschasy have added grunt and gravity to their already insistent, hook-laden tunes. Take the spine-tinglingly dissonant Turnaround, which comes on like a Soundgarden tune, all crunching power-chords and spindly guitar melodies. The interesting harmonic material, which really doesn’t fit the M.O. of a platinum selling rock act, nonetheless makes for engrossing listening. It’s catchy enough to scream along to in your car, and edgy enough to piss off anybody over the age of thirty-five. What a fantastic balance.

For all the smoke and mirrors (and there really aren’t many anyway), Kisschasy have become a band like kind of like Odyssey No. 5-era Powderfinger, who embody Australian experience and craft songs that are tightly wound and unfurl slowly into our consciousness over time. And as evidenced by the lovely closer Dinosaur, Darren’s statement of intent to his girlfriend across the sea, they haven’t entirely lost sight of where they’re coming from. Sure, Seizures is a step in a new direction. But seeing as Kisschasy are painting themselves a new map, it’ll be very rewarding to keep on following them.