Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Lebanon Hanover. "Gallowdance." (2013)

I came across this as I randomly stumbled through various blogs on Tumblr, eventually finding myself on some posts of exceedingly dark music.  There was Larissa Iceglass, with her Louise Brooks hair, dressed in black, and a noose around her neck.  I was immediately hooked.  But what would it sound like?  It sounded like some of the best post-punk, coldwavey stuff since the early 80's.  It had everything that chilled my heart; the metronomic drum machine, the bass playing straight eighths, and the repeated, almost dissonant guitar riff.  Larissa swings her arms and shuffles her legs back and forth like some mindless puppet, singing like a 21st century version of Nico.  In other words, they nailed it.  Lebanon Hanover has not revived post-punk, but they have taken its corpse, propped it up in a chair, and invited it to dinner.  How they manage to do this and not come off as a ridiculous gimmick is beyond me.  I'm sold.  Lebanon Hanover is the real deal.