Jon Dennis 

Death from Above 1979: The Physical World review – exhausting but fun

Government Trash typifies DFA 1979’s approach: pummelling riffs played with big, ugly guitars and brattish vocals, writes Jon Dennis
  
  

Death from Above 1979
Death from Above 1979 Photograph: PR

This is Toronto duo Death from Above 1979’s followup to their 2004 debut You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine. It has been a long wait – multi-instrumentalist Jesse Keeler and singer and drummer Sebastien Grainger split in 2005 before reconvening for some live shows in 2011 – but admirers of their full-on assault won’t be disappointed by The Physical World. Government Trash typifies DFA 1979’s approach: pummelling riffs played with big, ugly guitars overloaded with distortion, thundering drums and brattish vocals. Better still is Gemini, which adds electronic squawks to the mix. True, there are signs of maturity: DFA 1979’s earlier songs often had endearingly daft titles, whereas the only one here that does is Right On, Frankenstein!. But like its predecessor, The Physical World is crammed with loud, fast, short songs: It even has a similar cover, an unsettling image of Keeler and Grainger with elephant trunks for noses. exhausting, but great fun.

 

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