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Every time I get a new batch of CDs, I sift through them and give
a quick listen to see if I can find that one diamond in the doo-doo.
Last year, Mr. DeVoe and I concocted the idea for the Hybrid Magazine
Must Hear Music seal of approval. Until now, I'd applied the badge
of honor to exactly one CD. There've been others that were good CDs,
but I wanted the HMMHM branded CDs to be a cut well above the rest,
the sort of thing where when I'm recommending music to someone, I
don't stop to think about what kind of music they like to listen to.
They need to listen to it, and if they don't like it, they can go
pound sand.
The Gothic and The Gospel is just such a record. Partisan's
political reasoning has the simplicity and naiveté of youth
(war is always wrong - granted, but railing against inevitable existential
evils is like throwing stones at the ocean), and their logical progressions
are riddled with non sequitur (i.e. comparing the War on Terrorism
to events that happened decades ago in the South), but that is part
and parcel for the punk ethos; railing against the system because
it feels wrong, even when the rationale can't be logically articulated.
I expect the politically charged lyrics of their later work to improve
via metaphoric abstraction like the older works of Metallica
or System of a Down (Both of whom have unfortunately become
less subtle.), or through better-defined cause and effect relationships,
and the excision of platitudes. Yeah, I know that I have unrealistic
expectations for cogent political arguments to come out of entertainers,
but considering the abhorrent decay of the Democratic Party and liberal
ideology in general, someone's gotta be the torch bearer here.
The best lyrics are contained in "Georgia Goddamn". This
is a personal song about a first punk concert attended by the song's
narrator when he was 16, narrated with all of the flair of Henry
Rollins' Get In the Van. And let's not forget the kick-ass
tribal drumming; it all hinges on that.
Now, the reason this is Must Hear Music, is that Partisan is a compilation
of its musical influences without being obvious carbon copies of any
of them. They are Jazz, Hardcore, Rock, Tribal, Jam and probably some
others that I'm missing, all mashed together into a dynamic and highly
mutable sound. The end result is an experience that can be described
as a sum of its parts, but the whole does not fit into any particular
genre. This band is a moving target, but their music is resonant;
it has a familiarity that is easy to identify with, even if it itself
can't be singularly identified. And that is my measure of success.
All others can throw themselves on the pyre, or under the steamroller
along with the rest of the Madonna CDs.
-JD
Track Listing:
01.
02. Screaming Man
03. Music is the Weapon
04. Georgia Goddamn
05. Intersections
06. 42nd Parallel
07. Yoruba and Oglala
08. Money Changes Everything
09. A Hunger Artist
10. Farther North
11. The Method
12. The Partisan
13. One Who Has Death in his Pouch
14. Redefining Necessary
15. Search and Defend
16. Wolf Smoke
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