The rather odd artwork adorning their promo disc should have immediately sent alarm bells ringing in my battered lugs seeing as it depicts some naked man who is spewing suckered tentacles from his mouth, though the guy has very little recognisable features. Aside of that fact the rest of this CD just gets weirder. Bands of the mathcore sub-genre spend most their time packing as much as they can into each song without ever referring to some sort of template that I know of. The chaotic and dissonant nature of Das Simple’s songs fit this description perfectly, and hailing from France means they’re just plain weird anyway.
Their opener of “TSLA” has strange disconcerting and incoherent noises that develop into a frenetic and discordant racket that is devoid of pattern and prefers to throw as many hooks, beats, riffs, and leads into their jazzy hotpot as they can possibly fit in it. The mid section has a slight repeating pattern in a way that Dillinger Escape Plan produces within their songs. “Tales Of The Galactic Serpent (Part 1)” has an inauspicious and distinctly timid beginning that progresses to a slow dirge and backing bass rhythm. The whispering clean vocals are like someone standing next to you but you can’t quite work out what’s being said as the track is less manic but no less chaotic.
Pinpointing specific band references or influences is difficult in this genre as each has their own identifiable traits which is why mathcore is described as it is. The band is not as heavy as say Psyopus or Ion Dissonance nor are they as mainstream as say Misery Signals but probably sit somewhere in between if anywhere at all. “Coloured Food Tastes Good” offers a tune you can really get into with its repeating bass and drum lines but the increasing aggressive tendencies on the guitar work weave their warped way through the rhythm as though they’re just sneering or laughing at you, I couldn’t work out which. The bizarrely repeated lyrics of “This Is The Shit”… “Where Can I Get It Now” has an upbeat indie rock like feel with a deluge of guitar effects and inflections that are also used on “Nimrod, If You Want To See I Follow The Bombolone” (research on this word reveals it may have as many uses as the word fuck).
The much longer part 2 of “Tales Of The Galactic Serpent” has the band seemingly warming up their instruments like an orchestra does when tuning up all playing totally different things. As the song progresses the jazz touches come to full fruition here creating an increasingly complex time signature yet the track still retains an element of enjoyment. The song switches to a half blast momentarily as the guitar lulls to a gentle strum and the bass takes on the manic mode for its foray into musical madness. The closing track “Plesim” has some thoroughly dense bass work as the song has a bass solo like appeal very similar to what Cliff Burton did on “(Anaesthesia) Pulling Teeth” from “Kill ‘Em All”. The rest of the musicians are doing their best to bolster to bass fury with injections of manic guitar riffing and discordant drumming.
An album of musical lunacy to either send you to the nuthouse or have you riveted by their frenzied aural craziness.
http://www.dassimple.com
