05 March 2010

Cable - Sub-Lingual (1999)

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

I'm biased here, since I am one of a few people who rate Cable as one of the greatest bands that ever lived. Forced to close up shop due to legal / financial / management issues, "Sub-Lingual" is the band's parting shot at an indifferent music industry and an unaware public. Its fucking brilliant. This is the same evolutionary strain which birthed Sonic Youth, The Pixies and Nirvana. Every song is a tightly wound excercise in alt-rock minimalism and noise-rock artiness. Previous Cable releases relied heavily on clashing textures and hypnotic repetition, both of which are present here, but this time we are treated to hooks galore - in fact underneath Darius Hinks's strangled guitar and Richie Millls's algebraic drums, Matt Bagguley's songs are a perfect mesh of intelligent pop and raucous snot-nosed punk. Like S*M*A*S*H with a few extra brain-cells, beautifully recorded, and full of great abstract lyrics - practically perfect in every way.

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