So you dare to be different. You dare to be in a band that doesn’t even have a spot for a lead guitar. You then max out no less than two bass guitars on a frenzy of distorted overdrive and kick the wall down with some surprisingly effective drumming and then top it all off with some lost in sorrow vocals. You must be a band called…Thin Privilege.
Thin Privilege aren’t a three minute pop song band or, indeed, hardcore sonic extremists. It is true, however, that their songs are oblique and borne of the art-house but, while the volume may be turned up to the max and the attitude may be drawn from sources as far back as The Stooges, the sledgehammer approach is merely a ruse to disguise a more ironic take on the post punk didactic.
You can, for example, hear the ghost of Ian Curtis in the anger of “Hex Charmer” and an echo of Keith Flint decorates the suffering sonics of “Leave The Body”. The end result, however, is too good – too professional even – to be the result of a fortuitous amalgam of influences for there is a plan here and due care and attention has been taken to ensure that it is achievable.
Bands like Thin Privilege give me hope for the future of music. I don’t mean the music business either. I just mean music. Make whatever music you like but be good at it and, if at all possible, do something original for the truth is out there somewhere and we are all looking for it.