by Dan Goldin (@post_trash_)
Back at the tail end of August, Post-Trash had the pleasure of premiering "Boy," the debut single from Indianapolis' VV Torso. While not included on the band's full-length debut, LPVV, due out this Friday, November 3rd via Jurassic Pop Records, we called the song, "the calm before the storm." It was a great teaser, an introduction to the band's deranged post-punk, but the time for introductions is over. LPVV has arrived, and it's one of the stronger debuts in recent memory. The band rip and convulse like a wild animal, unleashed and rabid, scraping and gnashing it's teeth with ear-bleeding distortion and violent rhythmic shifts. At the center of their blistering attack is Natty Morrison, the band's charismatic frontman; part brilliant poet, part psychotic carnival barker.
We previously compared Morrison's howl to the likes of David Yow, Nick Cave, and Protomartyr's Joe Casey, not as a slight to his own unique vocal depravity, but quite the opposite, a testament to his utter command. As the band whip through piercing noise and walls of jagged sonic onslaught ("America," "Blood"), it's Morrison's deranged poetic fury that rises above it all. VV Torso's balance between vocal attack and their crushingly elastic structures is impressive. There's a lot to embrace and a lot to process, and they dive ever further into the deep end in quick bursts and rapid succession. There's so much promise in their balance of tension and volatility, swirling together in abrasive stabs ("Taper," "Success") and swelling grooves ("Object," "14 Days"). It's dark and lyrically dense, razor sharp and claustrophobic, but easily digestible. Stampeding rhythms tangled with rusty guitars and apocalyptic distress, and just as questioned on "Reasonable Lover," we're either dying or in love.
VV Torso's LPVV is out November 3rd via Jurassic Pop Records.