Album Review :: So Pitted - Neo

So Pitted

Neo

February 19 2016 (Sub Pop)

8.5/10

Words: Richard O’Hagan

Oh Sub Pop, where have you been? Arguably the world’s finest purveyor of resolutely uncommercial music and far too little of it crosses Little Indie’s digital doorstep. When it does, though, it is definitely worth waiting for - like a postie laden with birthday presents. Seattle trio So Pitted definitely fall into that category.

Like all of the best presents, ‘Neo’ is fresh, it’s vibrant, and it is really fucking noisy. It is like someone took some early My Bloody Valentine, decided that for once in his life Kevin Shields wasn’t being loud enough, so threw in some ‘Psychocandy’-era Jesus & Mary Chain and then added all of the feedback that Band of Susans ever used just for good measure. And then, just to add some subtlety to the mix, threw in a dash of Sonic Youth here (‘Woe’, for example) and an occasional splash of Pixies (such as on ‘Holding The Void’).

You can’t understand half of what anyone is saying, but it absolutely doesn’t matter. Lead single ‘Feed Me’ is a classic slow burner, beginning dark and heavy and working up to a piledriving, frenetic climax. Follow-up, ‘I’m Not Over It’ is, if anything, even better, a snarling, snotty, stomping beast which blasts in and then roars away again. None of which is to say that there isn’t finesse in there, too. Listen closely and you can hear repeated refrains throughout the album, both vocal and musical.

And most of these aren’t your two-minute punk thumpalong, either. Indeed, the running order seems to have been carefully structured so that no song ever dwells on the ear too long, with the shorter numbers towards the end in case listener fatigue sets in. It’s an unnecessary precaution, though, as you will want to hear this time and again.