Obnox – I’m Bleeding Now (Smog Veil Records)
I’ve been writing my way through this stack of records that never quite seems to get any smaller (thank heavens), and the one thing most of these platters have in common is that they’re all pretty grounded in a time, a place, a genre. There’s fast hardcore bands and slow folk singers, bedroom electronic knob-twiddlers and poly-syllabic dystopian rappers. Some of these are great, some of them not so much, but regardless of which side of the good/bad divide each artist falls I at least have some idea what’s going on. Then there’s the Obnox record.
Obnox – I’m Bleeding Now (Smog Veil Records)
I’ve been writing my way through this stack of records that never quite seems to get any smaller (thank heavens), and the one thing most of these platters have in common is that they’re all pretty grounded in a time, a place, a genre. There’s fast hardcore bands and slow folk singers, bedroom electronic knob-twiddlers and poly-syllabic dystopian rappers. Some of these are great, some of them not so much, but regardless of which side of the good/bad divide each artist falls I at least have some idea what’s going on. Then there’s the Obnox record.
Obnox, the solo project of Lamont Thomas, drummer for Cleveland’s excellent proto-post-nouveau-garage-psych-hardcore-et cetera act This Moment In Black History, hits in a way not many albums do. The surest reference point is the project’s title, which nails the first two syllables of the word ninety-nine percent of listeners would likely apply to the album. It’s a messy affair, to be sure. Cascades of feedback and effects-laden guitar blanket all the songs, only letting slip the vaguest insinuations of structure and coherence. But make no mistake – I’m Bleeding Now isn’t just some Wolf Eyes-style stab at the eardrums. It might take a listen or two, but there are songs – good ones even – that force their way through the noise like a beacon in a fog.
And this is where accurately summing up the album gets tricky. Like the band for whom he spends the majority of his time drumming, Thomas’ solo project picks small enough morsels of influence from enough sources that the end result ultimately bears little direct resemblance to any of his source material. There’s a bit of a shoegazer approach in the song structures buried under layers of effects and noise, but there is little of that genre’s ethereal whisper or melodic sensibilities. Some of the more sprawling, discordant moments of proto-punk noisemakers like the Velvet Underground or The Electric Eels come into play, but Obnox’s interpretation of that sound is more condensed and focused. Some of the actual song structures, muffled though they may be, aren’t too far removed from the soul-infused hard rock of a band like Death (the Detroit version), though Thomas’ take on their style is far more rough-and-tumble, lacking the nimble refinement of the original.
But for all the dissonance and abrasion, it’s lack of direct reference points, I’m Bleeding Now is a damn good record. Its gnarled, lo-fi production cordons it off from the irrelevant reverence of so much retro garage rock, just as its surprisingly catchy songwriting prevents it from turning into some pretentious noise-rock jerk-off. It can be difficult to pinpoint exactly what Thomas is aiming for, and while I’m Bleeding Now isn’t the easiest, most digestible record in the world, rock and roll was never supposed to be.
