Double Negative: Double Rad

In the same way there’s not much left to do with hip hop, punk and hardcore have ostensibly run their individual courses. It’s not the fault of bands still performing this sorta music, but hearing the same thing over and over again should have become pretty apparent at this point. So, it’s strange when new hardcore groups are held up as the pinnacle of the music. Remember Sex Vid? Yeah, they were pretty cool. But the band didn’t do anything at all unique. Their performances were mostly just Boston retreads. As a side, though, it’s interesting to note that at this late date, there’s not a buncha stuff that approximates Bad Brains or Minor Threat, Boston bands serving as an easier template to work with.

Whatever one’s opinion on the state of current musics, Durham’s Double Negative began issuing music back during 2007 or so, The Wonderful And Frightening World Of Double Negative being the band’s earliest long player. Given the band’s fan base, assumed to be an assortment of Southerners and hardcore hardcores, it’s not a tremendous surprise to find no one’s made mention of the fact that Double Negative’s album references the Fall pretty openly. In name only. The music here’s SSD/FUs pretty much all the way. What’s funny – and there’re a few things – is the band opening this disc with forty four seconds of feedback as if the gesture’s either artful or unique. It’s not.

Either way, soldiering through eleven tracks in less than twenty minutes is usually a good sign when examining works of this nature. There’s no need for Double Negative to bolster one minute songs like “Looking at the Rats,” with its pretty sad sack lyrical stuffs, with anything flowery in the music department. The band does take a few different tempos apart while working with sturdy hardcore tropes. “Retro Abortion” feels as if it’s been recorded before, or at least had its lyrical concerns addressed elsewhere. The shock-value title on this one, though, does what it’s supposed to and continues the album’s general blitz on the way to a quick climax.

The weird thing about The Wonderful and Frightening World…, just like a bunch of other hardcore releases, is that if they’re issued as a record, it takes no time to listen to one side, making revists seem like a waste. And if you’ve got this thing on CD, it’ll just be a pain to play in your car. Good thing no one buys stuff anymore.