Sauna Youth – Deaths

Upset The Rhythm

Upset The Rhythm have scored another hit with the latest from Sauna Youth, who tear through the rule book, spraying twelve tracks in our ears in less than half an hour and then heading for the pub, leaving us reeling. God knows where they have been for the last three years, but it certainly wasn’t the recording studio as this little treasure was knocked out in four summer days in 2018.

There is certainly no danger of any of these tracks outstaying their welcome, with them scrapping and slashing their way out of the speakers in anywhere between a minute and a half and three minutes, fully formed with clanging guitars and cool dual vocals, extemporising manic repetition or chanting like unlikely football fans… something about erogenous zones and other important matters.

At times the vocals are detached and muffled, but submerged under ramalama-ding-dong ramshackle guitar shenanigans and at others — as on “Problems” — they literally repeat that word again and again and again over high pitched guitar and heart-attack drums until they are blue in the face, or you can’t take anymore. There is a touch of NZ about some of the songs, like “No Personal Space”, but here they sound as though they are struggling with faulty guitar leads ending in wholesale wipe-out. Maybe Low were listening to this before they made Double Negative?

There is some lovely spoken-word stuff on here, courtesy of Maike Hale-Jones. She lays out a list of items, including metal things and wood chips (I think) over a very cute repetitive keyboard riff in “The Patio” and recites a fascinating story about a dead sister at an art exhibition (I think) over melodica and very abstract cello in “Swerve”. Throughout the album though, there is no obvious rhyme or reason to the structures and that makes it very satisfying.

Their default tempo appears to be madcap and as they insist on “In Flux” that “It makes no sense and the words are wrong” whilst a messy guitar solo and a drenching of gorgeous feedback seem to try and smother the song before it has a chance to end. The the tempo can become slower here and there, if not less insistent, and on “Distracted”, the drummer is clearly trying to put everyone else off with his incessant cymbal bashing as the vocalists sound like they are yelling at you from a bridge.

The whole thing is a delight, constantly on the verge of catching fire or falling over but always moving forward, running roughshod over any indie sensibilities. It may be short, but it is worth it. You certainly won’t be thinking of time while it is playing; you won’t have a chance.

-Mr Olivetti-