Parts & Labor – Receivers

On 2007’s Mapmaker, Parts & Labor were a three piece cranking out electronics based noise rock, Christopher Weingarten beat the crap out of his drum kit, BJ Warshaw and Dan Friel twiddled knobs, plugged things into different sockets, flipped switches, played a little bit of guitar (electric and bass) in between all that, and sang out in an amateurish wail positive, up-lifting melodies, and lyrics. A year on and Receivers is the product of a different band and a different context, Weingarten left to be replaced by Joe Wong, and guitarist Sarah Lipstate joined up, Dan Friel released a short all-electronics solo album earlier this year, the band released a couple of EPs that were rooted in their noisier past. Dan Friel and BJ Warshaw also stepped up their Cardboard Records label by releasing Love And Circuits a 2 CD compilation of underground US artists whom the band have met whilst touring, covering punk, folk, electronics, noise and experimental music. All of these things have had an effect on the way Receivers sounds, the noisier side has been exorcised into those EPs leaving anthemicism and much longer songs, the large shuddering drums have been scaled back, guitar parts are more expressive, and the vocals have gained overt melody.The dominant ‘instrument’ on Receivers is Friel and Warshaw’s banks of electronics, they handle melody, bass and even percussive parts, filling up each track with quite dense busy sounds. There are three or four overt anthems here, ‘Nowheres Nigh’ is a dynamic fist-punching track, the melody rising and rising, with reverb on the guitar and vocals. Rather incongruously the melody of ‘Little Ones’ resembles Cat Stevens’ ‘Father And Son’, and along with next track ‘The Ceasing Now’ we find a sweeping grandeur, the previous achieves this through churchy organ and nervous drums, while the latter breaks out bag-pipe sounding electronics to make it resemble a Scottish folk song being belted out across the highlands and fenns. The catchiest track here is ‘Wedding In A Wasteland’, starting with a gurgling synth making a compelling melody, which gets revisited in broader terms for the chorus. The song has a compelling sentiment that can be described as an ecstatic fatalism, ‘Well, we’re all gonna die/Such a beautiful wedding/In a waaaaste land’ perhaps says it best, and although it may come across as ironic and distanced, it actually sounds inspiring and positive. New guitarist Sarah Lipstate brings a welcome element to the band’s sound, she can shred when she wants, (‘Prefix Free’), and she can play some delicate parts too, (‘Solemn Show World’).This album is as long as the previous one but it has fewer tracks, and this connects with the influences Friel and Warshaw have been mentioning in interviews recently, such as bands like Pink Floyd. After watching a documentary on how Dark Side Of The Moon was made they came up with the idea of asking fans to send in noises and sounds to the band, which were then integrated into the squiggly junk clutter sound. The other clear inspiration is Krautrock, the sleek propulsive chugging and psychedelic qualities of that style thread throughout the album, turning up in ‘Satellites’, ‘Nowheres Nigh’, ‘Little Ones’ and ‘Solemn Show World’. With those ingredients it seems as if this album should be one of my favourites of the year, I should love it”¦ but I don’t. The new catchy pop side can work well, with ‘Nowheres Nigh’ and ‘Wedding In A Wasteland’, but maybe, I’ve been thinking, it doesn’t work as effectively as had been suggested on Mapmaker. The emphasis of hooks has meant the receding of noisy electronics and frantic drums, and in the end those things were essential to the air of danger, or rather excitement, the band had developed. Friel and Warshaw’s vocals can’t handle the extra responsibility they have been given in the overall make-up, they show their limitations but nothing interesting comes of that, unlike an organ sound that has an edge of static, or a guitar spilling out feedback. 65%Parts & Labor on MySpace