!!! 'Louden Up Now' (Warp)

An encyclopedia compiler’s nightmare, !!! have at least done the decent thing and told us how to pronounce their punctuated name. Sparing us any Prince-like dilemmas as to whether we should be calling them The Three Exclamation Marks (as they introduced themselves at a gig in London last year), the cover of their debut album instructs us to “say it Chk Chk Chk”. Now the only question that remains is should you use this new information to ask for the album by name in your local record shop?

Arising from the remnants of a number of New York based punk bands to form a seven-piece outfit, !!! made their name via some incendiary live shows and their Mayor of New York-baiting single ‘Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard’. Clocking in at just over nine minutes the song is included on ‘Louden Up Now’, released over here on glitchy electronica label Warp, and is a cool slice of epic and angry funk.

An industrial sound runs throughout the funk-laden record with lots of scattergun beats, snatched instrumentals and grinding structural changes mid-song. They aren’t afraid to let go of any groove they etch and on ‘Dear Can’ they happily venture into surreal soundscapes. But !!! are at their best when they find focus, like on the fierce polemic ‘Pardon My Freedom’, and the album’s centerpiece ‘Shit Scheisse Merde’. The latter, divided into two parts, begins as a low slung funk swear-fest, a reaction from singer Nic Offer to the fact that “everyone wants him to be like Zimmerman”, before adding some minimal electro to proceedings.

At times there is a certain vagueness to ‘Louden Up Now’ with tracks going on too long to nowhere in particular. But their innovative industrial funk sound and driven temperament means however you say it, !!! is a name worth asking after.

words: Colm Larkin

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