from bob.
Satisfact - The Unwanted Sounds of Satisfact (1996)
I know I'm terribly late, sorry. So we ended up trading two albums. I'll say something about Satisfact first. I was told that this band needs to be heard as it's ridiculously underrated. As I learned afterward, it is somewhat forgotten and it's a damn shame, because it is quite an enjoyable listen. My trader also said that Satisfact sounds like a fuzzier Joy Division and I can certainly hear that, but, honestly it reminded me a lot more of New Order, especially in "Power, Corruption & Lies". It didn't click right away, but the next day I found myself, unexpectedly, completely hooked. Everything sounded so familiar, but somehow very fresh at the same time. That early 80s post-punk and pop music of bands like Psychedelic Furs, Echo & The Bunnymen and The Comsat Angels came to my mind and those tricky nostalgic feelings totally overwhelmed me. (Damn that 80s nostalgia.) I must say that I found Satisfact's music to be rougher, noisier and more addictive. That feeling is achieved by a catchy driving quality of very solid bass, fuzzy guitar and totally magical keyboards. Those floating keyboard driven melodies paired with a distant, seemingly cold vocal give Satisfact's music some strange mix of remoteness and closeness. I found that very enjoyable.
One of the strongest songs on the album is the opening track 'First Incision' that starts with a very New Order-esque bass line which is something that helps greatly in pulling you into the album. That promise of something great is held with a lot fuzzier and energetic second track 'Escapism for the Future' and it continues with varying degree of intensity. My two favorite songs go one right after another, melancholic '50mg Once Daily' and very upbeat 'Unswitched'. Some of my other favorites are very catchy, keyboard driven 'Oscillator' and a darker 'Disconnect' that in some moments feels like it could belong in some Joy Division or New Order album.
Btw, this is the first of Satisfact's three albums, released in 1996. Maybe the timing somewhat answers the question of why is this band so underrated. With its new wave/post-punk sound, this certainly sounded very retro in the mid-90s and that whole post-punk revival of the 00s was yet to happen. In a way, this band was somewhere halfway between New Order and Interpol, for example. But, that doesn't take away anything from the overall quality of its music. This is a very good album.
David E. Williams - I Have Forgotten How to Love You (1996)
And now for something completely different. This one I picked myself, half-blindly. (I sure know how to pick 'em). It looked like some neofolk, dark cabaret with humor, but, I was warned to take this only if I'm not easily offended, because, paraphrasing, "David E. Williams takes gallows humor to a whole new level". Well, every warning will only intrigue me more, so of course I took it. I've noticed on the first hearing that the music is pretty good and very keyboard based , but I knew right away that my main concern will be the lyrics, as David E. Williams is, what you can call, a singer-songwriter. The album opens with a title track, a love song 'I Have Forgotten How to Love You' and right there it caught me off guard. Such a beautiful, mellow, optimistic melody carried by sprawling keyboard sound and, then, he started to sing with his crude, 'drunk' voice, totally clumsy and off-key. Hilarious. But, I found this stark contrast very endearing. It can also be heard in the lyrics, although I won't quite use this epithet 'endearing' in that case. His most heinous crime is that he has forgotten how to love, although he implies he's had quite a few, like putting a squirrel into the mower...This is a love song of one sick fu
ck...how cute. This is nothing yet. This album has 19 pretty short songs and it flows very easily, but there are so many hilarious, absurd or straightforwardly sick parts that it would take me an essay to mention everything. I read somewhere that somebody called him Nick Cave's bad twin. That's not so far from the truth, or more likely 'Nick Cave with a twisted sense of humor'.
David E. Williams is linked to that post-industrial, neo-folk scene, but from what I've read of him and from some of his interviews he doesn't quite see himself there. He seems to me more like an outsider commentator of that scene's toying with totalitarian and Nazi images and symbols and of general political correctness. He uses those images and gives them a totally sick twist. Just one line from song 'Sarah's Booted Boy' ("I saw the oven of Birkenau between your bony legs") is enough to give a phrase 'death camp humor' a new meaning. There are no boundaries for humor in the world of David E. Williams. And that world is full of deviation, diseases, grotesque and absurd. He somehow finds the way to laugh at it all and at himself. And I can't help but laugh with him. It's one of those uncomfortable feelings when you know you shouldn't be laughing, but you do anyway, so in the end you feel somewhat violated or surprised at yourself.
Still, my favorite songs on the album, lyrically and musically, are his love songs, funny, deviated, witty and always bittersweet. These are the love songs of disillusioned and somewhat disappointed man who laughs at himself. 'I Have Forgotten How to Love You' is probably my favorite, but there is also hilarious 'Vaginal Interior Decorator' and darker and twisted 'Me and My Girl and the Cold Grey World'. Some other songs that stuck with me are: 'Fish Heads and Olives', 'Spring is in the Air', 'I'm In Love with the Ambulance Driver', 'Fear of Food', 'Little Miss Consumptive Icon', 'Restraining Order'. Well, that's a lot of favorites and this was quite an experience.
