Review: Sly & The Family Drone - Unnecessary Woe

And so to THE best named band in music. Sly & The Family Drone are a band I've long heard about but never really heard...something I now regret. To name your band after one of the most influential outfits in modern music takes either some big cojones or a serious 'shit'n'giggles' outlook on life....and I'm pretty sure S&TFD have both.

The band have a reputation of putting on a pretty chaotic live show....musically and structurally, with shedloads of percussion, audience members becoming part of the band and an unholy racket....so how does this translate onto disc? Well, pretty damned well actually. For those who dig Black Dice and Shit & Shine I would say that this is pretty essential listening. The juxtaposition of some atavistic, pummelling percussion, some mutant electronics and a relentless motorik backbone makes for a heady listen. At times it's heard to believe that the band stuck to their mission statement of “There is no place for guitars within this band,” such is the power of some of the jamming.

The opener 'Handed Cack' serves as a 'gentle' intro to the following 2 tracks - skittish cymbals and half drones with some gasping vocal samples set the grisly scene for what's to come. 'Grey Meat' ups the tempo and the drums and cymbals start to propel the track forwards via some creepy gregorian chanting - such is the sense of relentless acceleration it feels as though your heart is struggling to keep pace and leaves you feeling pretty breathless. The cymbals become more urgent and the analogue bells,whistles, clicks and shrieks all join in to make a cacophonous maelstrom ... except it's not a cacophony, there IS form and structure to it, just not one with which we're familiar.

“A Man That Could Look No Way But Downwards With A Muck-Rake In His Hand” is the longest and most intriguing of the 3 tracks. For the first ten minutes or so it is bereft of the propulsive rhythms and infectious percussion, relying solely on some sparse, spluttering electronica until a primal scream erupts signalling the start of a tribal, industrial drumbeat and a krautlike workout (think Throbbing Gristle playing krautrock) that whirls and swirls but keeps to the script and propels ever onward to the conclusion.

'Unnecessary Woe' is not an easy listen: at times claustrophobic, sometimes frustrating and even teeth-curlingly painful, but, if one goes into it with expectations and preconceptions suspended it is an immensely satisying listen that confuses, bemuses and can emotionally drain the listener...and in my book these are very good things. This is a band with very big cojones but also big imaginations and huge vision.

'Unnecessary Woe' is available from the Sly & The Family Drone Bandcamp page...and the vinyl comes with a groovy screenprinted cover (unfortunately the T-shirt bundles have gone, which is a shame as I fancied a T !)