Of How Hits
12XU, 2024
Not exactly sure how Voice Imitator’s debut album escaped my attention, as it was released during pandemic year zero when I had loads of time to dig into all the primo shit 12XU was slinging. My headspace at the time was definitely primed for their type of racket too, which supposes that noisy, rock-like music still has some tricks up its sleeves and plenty of room to stretch its sonic storms into uncharted territories. Human Impact was advancing the primal thump of Swans and Unsane into more layered, dimensional forms of aural punishment, while NYC’s Uniform shaped their primal thump with the unrelenting, oppressively repetitive beat of industrial music around the same time. It was becoming obvious that the current state of affairs was inspiring this loosely defined music genre to pump in evolving new strains of urban dread. Melbourne’s Voice Imitator put a uniquely Aussie twist on this modern noise rock-ish sound that grabs its bits of grime and grit further outside the typical sources. Ride along with the polyrhythmic stumblefuck of lead track “Ferdinand’s Nightshade” or the rhythmic build and release on the track “Smartphone Photograph from the Passenger Seat” and you can see what I mean. “Sportcoupé” could be The Young Gods pounding one of their mechanical chopped-up guitar riffs into oblivion while Michael Farkas from Grong Grong growls along to the intensifying maelstrom, which are all touchpoints worthy of the highest praise in my book. I’ve had a Melbourne-sized stiffy for the Aussie underground decades long now and Of How Hits definitely will help keep it up.