Ruhr

One of those releases that is easy to overlook on first listen, because of its minimalist, low-fi approach and singer/songwriter Steve Beyerink's Lou Reed Indian-chant atonal vocals. Beyerink is weird, there's no denying it. And so is this music. It's the perfect soundtrack for the Charlie Manson psycho-killer in all of us. Songs like the early-Velvet's influenced rockers "There Is No Other Possible Way" and "White Gold" are true finds, while the off-kilter piano and drum-machine rant "10,000 Romances," with its odd broken rhythms, will have you pounding the top of your CD player. Then there are the "graters" (as in grating) -- the tracks that are sure to frighten and annoy your friends and neighbors. Slaughter-film theme song "Madeira" and the 5-plus-minute "Whorehouse Blues" leave a slightly nauseous tension in your gut, which I'm sure was their intent.

There's no denying Beyerink's vocals are an impossible-to-acquire taste that permeates everything on Ruhr. Still, it wouldn't be the same without them because no other voice could capture his lyric's adolescent-minded honesty. This isn't homemade emo poetry sung by a tortured art-school kid, it's homemade emo poetry sung by the loner who hung out in shop class. You won't reach for this more than a couple times, but it's an achievement nonetheless.

back to   Posted May 10, 2004. Copyright © 2004 Tim McMahan. All rights reserved.