Blue Grape Music (label)
03 November 2023 (released)
03 November 2023
“Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise.”
― Jacques Attali, Noise: The Political Economy of Music
San Franciscan punk-monks Spiritual Cramp (named after the 1982 song by US goth-group Christian Death) are here to deliver us from upheaval and give us our daily head-bread. Offering sounds to unloosen the ties that bind and release the lies that blind. Emancipation resides within. Submit and win. Sinners are losers.
Extant since 2016 this is the sextet’s debut ‘proper’ (OUT NOW on Blue Grape Music) following 2018’s compilation ‘Television’ along with a slew of EPs.
Comprised of Michael Bingham (vexed invectives), Michael Fenton (bass), Jose Luna (auxiliary percussionist), Jacob Breeze and Nate Punty (pole-axed guitars) and Julian Smith on thrumbeat the Cramp concoct what appears to be soft-cased syrupy indie flim-flam which upon repeated hearings are in fact steelbound (he)art-rock and whole-soul.
Witness: Post-traumatic stress disordering meets self-care recalibrating. Experience: Anti-materialistic anthems oozing with sardonic mocking and harmonic snook-cocking. Enjoy: Vignettes straight from the confines of Wholesome Prism Blues.
Bingham’s preacher-like yelps, glottal-throttle and confession-all kinetic connective-tics are augmented by a procession of frenetic power-poise-play-noise. Scratch beneath the surface sheen and the lyrics are a cauldron of angry atom bomb emotions, pent-up frustrations and suppressed screeches reaching their intended destination of ‘deal with it’. Better out than in. And … breathe …
Opener ‘Blowback’ has a dub-reggae intro and outro, an intriguing laidback bookend to a jet-set propulsive two-minute treatise on the alliances of an unnamed target.
‘Talkin’ on the Internet’ is as literal as it sounds. A deconstructive diatribe about the online chatacombs and digital cocoons that serve to inhibit true expression and instead exhibit filtered selves and hive minds. Throw the tsunamis of narcissism, overbearing oversharing and the residue of a permanent digital stain into the mix and it’s a wonder anyone with a brain cell bothers anymore.
Fate intervenes whenever it sees fit and paths supervene when two hearts commit. The sonic love letter ‘Herbert’s on holiday’ imagines a vastly different existence in the absence of another, in this case Bingham’s wife. One downward destiny averted in place of an upward trajectory.
Overall, this debut is a sonic catharsis, an onslaught of feelings and healings. Release the tensions and imbibe.
Spiritual Cramp will be on British and Irish shores in December, catch ‘em whilst you can. They wanna know whose side you’re on.
