Volksempfanger are a new duo featuring Bhajan Bhoy's Ajay Sagar alongside Holly Habstritt whose Attack Of Sounds debut album is a full-on journey into Psychedelic noise, of the sort I heard loads of in the late 80's and early 90's. They are named after the German Peoples Radio and are not to be confused with the German band of the same band, as this duo are based in Holland.
The album opens with the title track Attack Of Sounds that has a gentle intro with gauzy vocals in a Slowdive shoegaze style.
How We Seem is claustrophobic indie noise like they recorded in a sound proofed cupboard with the microphones outside and the vocals going through several mufflers to make them more indistinct, this is compelling as the fuzzy guitars battle with the tambourine infused drumming.
What The Girl Does has floaty vocals sitting nicely above the fizzing guitars, with drums stuck way over in a corner out the way, harmonies float by, I would need to hear this a dozen times to get close to working out what they are singing about, but it is perfect to line dance too.
Moan takes a military style marching band drumbeat, sticks some guitars over it then lets the gossamer vocals harmonize and demonize, like they are trapped in 1988 with no way out, moaning about a future they can never conceive of being how it is.
Your Gonna Lose Hard has a dreamy undertow as weird guitar noises come and go around the dual dream state vocals, explaining exactly what your downfall will be.
Damned & Drowned has an anger from within the sweet sounding vocals, as guitars crash and cascade through the mix, like The Primitives crossed with The Jesus & Mary Chain they mix darkness and sweetness delightfully.
Slipping By is gentle and calm guitar figures with reverb heavy vocals slipping all sorts of stuff by us, until things become clear and Lush.
Remain The Dancer no matter how hard this tune might be to dance to, it has a slight balletic edge musically, as the bow scraping and distorted guitars play against some steady, simple drumming and the slightly buried vocals.
Off My Back is more stripped back, the guitars are clearer in places, as the basic drums add texture to all the reasons, they need you Off My Back.
The album closes with You've Lost It that has super slow Velvets style drumming with the layers of guitars and vocals over the top, slowly building to explain all the ways in which You've Lost It that include being dumb enough not to pre-order this album.
Find Out More at https://volksempfanger.bandcamp.com/album/attack-of-sound https://www.facebook.com/ajay.saggar https://www.facebook.com/holly.habstritt
