The commitment of French trio Slift is impressive. Whether one cares about the styles being shoved in your ears here on Ilion or not, one must admit there's a real effort being made here to wreck a listener with volume. In a way, it makes perfect sense that this group is on Sub Pop, though I don't recall any Seattle band in the late Eighties recordinging songs near the quarter-hour mark. But I digress.
The title cut on Ilion, for example, churns with the force of And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, before collapsing into a spacious run at territory marked out by both Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Mogwai. Slift's embrace of these forms is respectable, with the sounds here being just the right kind of abrasive in spots. "Nimh", to use another example, feels like a natural progression from the first cut on the record, with the riffs here roiling around towards the sun. The vocals are a bit metal-y, but there's at least nuance here (a little), as things shift from the world's on fire to chill out everyone! in a matter of minutes.
The degree you enjoy the music of Slift is down to how much you can appreciate epic riffage that seems, at least to me, a bit unmoored at times. It's one thing to work up such power, but another entirely to know how to channel it. And maybe that's the thing that makes Slift unique? Maybe by not caring about anything except the central hook, and delivering it at maximum volume, Slift have found a way to stake out their own turf in a crowded modern rock landscape. There are certainly things here that will resonate successfully with you if you're even a casual fan of any of the bands I've referenced above. And, of course, I'm fairly confident that Slift are probably an impressive live band, leaving Ilion just the documentation of something extraordinary, once replicated in a studio.
Ilion by Slift is out now via Sub Pop.
[Photo: Sub Pop]