James Bond and ALF meet in France… sounds like a bad joke? Not if you think like Salo: the French noise-rock trio released their debut record last month and it should be something for all those who like Metz, Thee Oh Sees or Pissed Jeans. Powerful, straight to the point and uncompromising. Sounds intriguing, right?
To clue up that strange first sentence – when a band releases an album titled From Melmac With Hate then it combines two different “cinematic” worlds – the one of ALF from Melmac, who was a kind of amicable menace for the average middle-class family – and the famous James Bond movie From Russia With Love in which Bond does nothing extraordinary but save the planet. When you now think of that little subtle change from Love to Hate one might guess that Salo want to see the world burn. And when listening to their high-power-maximum-octane noise-rock, which doesn’t take hostages but waltz over them, then this might even be closer to the truth than one can expect.
Salo from Lyon surely have listened to a lot of modern noise-rock in the vein of the aforementioned bands and they as surely know how to incite uncontrolled body movement through their songs and then give the audience the necessary break to catch a breath before the next attack on the senses and feet begins. The songs are cleverly lined up on this debut record, which becomes obvious with ”Tasmanian Tiger (For Nikita)” and its partial new wave bass-line being the retarding moment to catch your breath. That is also somewhat necessary for the first five tracks are best described with “pedal to the metal” - some passages are so fast that the tracks are bordering on hardcore-punk. An effect that is certainly a desired one, from the side of the band at least, and one must admit that a lot of that has to do with the good distortion of the basslines.
The 37 minutes are filled with pumping bass work, perfectly aligned with exciting drumming, a well-blended mixture of shrieking and screaming and spiraling and pummeling guitar parts accompanied by some pushing vocals. One must admit that if this is the debut record – where can Salo go with a bit more experience? The band is on a really tight level and push their noise-rock wherever they can and always with an emphasis on rock. If you can imagine The Bronx with a bit less mariachi influence or Metz with a bit less finesse in their songwriting, then you are pretty close to their sound.
One can easily imagine riding your deck into the sunset to this record. But it’s also the kind of music for skateboarders to break some part of their bodies to. Not always nice to look at, but surely something you can’t look away from. Just like we couldn’t look away when ALF was on, or James Bond – this record screams for your attention and those screams should be heard!
