Album Review

Labasheeda – A Few Of A Population EP

• 15th Sep 2009

“Two late too late”, which introduces Labasheeda’s new EP, offers some menacing punk with its caustic power chords thrashing around while Saskia van der Giessen sneers and rants out her lines. It appears a serviceable, if unexciting jaunt, but the last few seconds, which see the riffage colliding with a wall of chaotic electronic noise, hint at experimental tendencies beyond the garage rock remit. This side of Labasheeda is most boldly shown by two of the tracks – that’s a third of the record – being instrumentals, both of which see a surprisingly good team-up between the dirty distortion of the guitars and an unexpected but beautiful violin.
Contrastingly, the most conventional – and infectious – moment on the EP comes from scuzzy three-chord stomp “Nite Bright”, a quick and dirty foray loaded with lairy hooks and jagged riffs. But this is a CD that broods and mopes more often than it explodes, and closer “Free to Destroy” is a strong finish: a sprawling, angsty track of shifting dynamics and the most rousing display of van der Giessen’s great vocal work.