Glaas: Qualm 12″

Description

“A gang of stylish demons discover a wild animal pacing around a Berlin cellar, wearing only a hawaiian shirt and someone elses blood. He doesnt know what day it is, just that he went to a party several months ago and hasnt been to sleep since. They lovingly rescue and rehouse the wretched creature in a glaas box where hes content to howl his paranoid chants all day for their entertainment and now ours. This debut lays out a mangled inventory of fractured memories, haunted visions of broken people and places making a sacred ritual out of ruining themselves. These are hymns to so many nights gone so far wrong, from the graveyard sex to the extra bump you might have resisted had the urge to feel something not overtaken you Employing an elevated and reinvigorated version of the modern post punk with anarcho flourishes mode, with whirring synthesisers and creepy keys signpost into even more disorienting territory, GLAAS create a creepy and compelling soundtrack to the romantic nihilism of urban decay: disturbing lifestyle choices but make it sexy.” – Bryony Beynon

Featuring members of Clock Of Time, Exit Group, Cage Kicker, Idiota Civlizzatto, Lacquer and more. This is the debut LP from GLAAS.

Our take: When I wrote about Glaass debut cassette earlier this year, I remember thinking that as much as I liked those three songs, Glaass music seemed better suited to a longer release where they could go deeper and further. Qualm confirms my suspicion. The maximalism I noted on the cassette is present in full force on Qualm, which on first listen can sound like an inchoate maelstrom, with drums, bass, guitars, synths, and vocals all pulling in different directions, a supernova of sound that is remarkable in its density, but unstable at the core and ready to explode. Ive been playing Qualm a lot over the past few weeks, and I still hear new things on every pass the record is so crammed with music that even an attentive listener will need dozens of plays to feel like theyve made progress extracting its riches. Perhaps because that density can be exhausting, Im particularly drawn to the moments on the record where Glaas lets their foot off the gas and allows the music to breathe, most memorably on the (unexpectedly) reggae-tinged An Ode to Ravachol. For fans of the members previous projects like Clock of Time and Nervous Eaters, Qualm is a must-hear, but Glaas will appeal to anyone who has an ear for challenging post-punk in the tradition of bands like Wire and the Pop Group.