Review :: Blonde Redhead 'Fake Can Be Just As Good'

This old review first appeared in BigO Magazine, Singapore - back in the day. 

BLONDE REDHEAD

Fake Can Be Just As Good 

(Touch and Go)

Whenever anything is written about the wondrous trio of Blonde Redhead, it seems that another New York band is bound to get mentioned; and it ain't DNA - the seminal outfit who recorded the song from which Blonde Redhead took their name (not to be confused with Singapore's own DNA).

No, Blonde Redhead complain of a condition called Inevitable-Sonic-Youth-Namecheck-Syndrome... and this review looks like it just failed to be an exception. Apologies to Blonde Redhead.

When a band gets wacky with its guitar tunings and has a sound that doesn't exactly fit the "standard" guitar formulas we're too used to hearing, the words "Sonic" and "Youth" are never too far from the lips of certain

lazy-eared folks. It's a knee-jerk reaction Blonde Redhead must have become sick of years ago.

Admittedly, the Blonde Redhead's compelling guitar interplay and references to New York's No-Wave scene means there are times when their music is reminiscent of something you might have heard in Sonic Youth's '80s repertoire, but even if they are the best candidates for succession to the Sonic throne, Blonde Redhead don't deserve to be thoughtlessly typecast as Sonic-wannabes. Like their previous records, Fake Can Be Just As Good shows that Blonde Redhead have a romantic sensuousness and mystique that's all

their own.

The emotional intensity is there from the beginning with the urgent dash and chaotic guitar shards of Kazuality. For a start, with a title like that, is it wrong to assume that Amedeo Pace's anguished lines like

"I-want-you" are addressed to fellow Blonde Redhead singer-guitarist, Kazu Makino?

Exciting as it is, Kazuality merely touches on what's to follow - the rich, winding melodies and rhythms that emerge, interlock and explode in the songs like the euphoric Symphony of Treble, the ominous Pier Paolo, and the bittersweet beauty of Ego Maniac Kid.

The aptly-titled Bipolar is a demonstration of how effective Makino and Pace's dual vocals can be as they earnestly trade lines over hypnotic harmonics and the Can-like drum patterns of Amedeo's twin brother, Simone Pace. Guest bassist Vern (on loan from Unwound) miraculously anchors the dramatic tension Blonde Redhead repeatedly create - something that's undeniably there in the interconnecting elements of Water. It starts with taut, staccato blasts which then unravel into more chiming, flowing music as Pace laments "Wasted wounded silent love." In this context, the extended drum roll that pulls the song out of the hum of its breakdown into a more violent passage is virtually orgasmic. However, despite the intensity, the band never resorts to artless bombast.

Even with the comparatively standard, upbeat riffage of Oh James (whose spy-theme guitar part resembles Pink Floyd's Lucifer Sam), you can't escape the sense of longing that's embedded in Blonde Redhead's music. 

Despite the album title's claim that Fake Can Be Just As Good, understand that this is no cheap imitation. This is real, beguiling and beautiful music. 

(8) - Ben Harrison (whose band gets compared to Sonic Youth)