La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, a small mountain town where most inhabitants spend their lives handcrafting complicated mechanisms for the luxury watches the country is renowned for, and also the hometown of Louis Jucker, Jonathan Nido, and Luc Hess, respectively the bassist/ backing singer, guitarist and drummer of Berlin based experimental Metal act The Ocean since...somewhere in 2009, I guess (The Ocean have had a stable line-up since Fall 2009, with the threesome and the band's originator, Robin Staps, being joined by lead singer Loïc Rossetti – as a fivesome, they have since released the 2010 albums Heliocentric and Anthropocentric, and most recently, in April 2013, the 2-disc Palagical).
Perhaps out of frustration of not being able to lay his own egg (The Ocean very much being Staps' baby), Nido initiated Coilguns with his two colleagues in December of 2010. Soon after, the trio found itself in the studio, they recorded 3 tracks which were later as a handmade (and rather limited edition, with only 150 copies – in Sept. 2011) split-CD with Kunz, a Noise Rock/ Performance duo side-project by Jucker and Hess (in Sept. 2011, the split was given a proper release through Berlin based Pelagic Records). Following the EP's recording, Jucker decided to quite the bass and concentrate on his vocal performance, and “crowd fighting”. To solve the issue of not having a bassist, Nido came up with the solution of using his ridiculous amount of guitar and bass amps and cabinets, using a huge custom pedal board to allow him to sound like two guitarists and a bassist at the same time. The hyperactive dudes went back in the studio and recorded the 30-minute Stadia Rods in one day with the help of Julien Fehlmann, whom mixed and mastered the thing in only a few hours. This EP was again released in a handmade CD edition through the band, but also on a vinyl 12-inch through UK's Dead Dead Dead Music, on March 15, 2012. While in Australia to do a couple of shows in June of 2012, the band got an e-mail from longtime German friends NRVDV, asking whether they would want to do a split album. A week later, they were in Perth's Yoho studio with Adam Round, and after 4 live takes of each song, the material was recorded. The EP was released as both a 10-inch and in the form of a fancy A5 CD (and constituted the first release through Nido's Hummus Records). Note : both splits and the band's own EP were made available through Pelagic Records.
Straight from getting back from Australia, the band was offered to support Baroness, Norma Jean, and Darkest Hour on select shows, and went on to play extra support on 3 shows of Nasum's Farawell Tour 2012 (main support for which was Black Breath). Previous support slots were with The Ocean (evidently!), The Dillinger Escape Plan, or festivals where the band supported the likes of Agnostic Front, A Storm Of Light, Napalm Death, Sleep, and The Secret, among others. Somewhere along the line, someone suggested that the trio should record a full-length album, and after just looking at each other, they just went, “Why not, should be fun!”...
So, in late November of 2012 (in fact Nov. 22, 23 and 24), the trio secluded itself at the Studio Mecanique with engineer Karim Pandolfo and a couple of helping friends (guitarists Mathieu Guignard, Fabien Bedoy, Christoph Noth, Mathieu Hinderer, and bassist Emanuel Devaud) to give a couple of the songs (“Commuters Part 2”, and “Minkowski Manhattan Distance”) some more depth, recording the whole with a minimum of guitar overdubs in one-take live conditions. In fact, two more songs on the album, namely “Blunderbuss Commitee” and “Earthians” were recorded live (and therefore in one take for sure!) on Nov. 25 at the Bikini Test festival. The vocals on the rest of the 11 songs which the album counts however, were recorded separately by Jucker in a friend's room studio (note : Keijo Niinima contributed additional vocals to the track “Minkowski Manhattan Distance” and shares credits for the lyrics). Mixing was performed between Nov. 23 and Dec. 5th...in other words, a rush job beyond compare, as everything was canned (including the mixing) in under two weeks...but you'd never think so from the outcome!
Thus far, I haven't spilled a word on the musical direction of the band (ain't I a sneaky bastard? Oops...sorry Dad, I never meant for you to find out this way! - Joke! I àm my father's son for sure!), although the fact that the guys also play in The Ocean may give sóme indication. Indeed, the music is a nicely intricate one, with loads or repetitive riffs intermingling, and with atmospheric passages in between heavier parts. But those latter are perhaps a bit heavier overall. Vocals are a mixture of ecstatic screams, over-the-top shouting, and occasional near-spoken word passages. The band cites influences from the likes of The Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge, Breach, Black Breath and Refused...personally, I could not but think of being reminded of Coalesce (coincidence : Coalesce's Sean Ingramm provided some of the vocals on the first two The Ocean albums) and Botch, due to the Progressive Post-Hardcore elements I hear in the music. Whatever, due to work conditions I was unable to write reviews for a while, and I daresay I spent most of that time listening mostly to this album, over and over again! I mean, I just cannot get tired of this!!!
For you very extensive introduction to the band, the guys not only posted 5 tracks (only “Machines Of Sleep” not being off the full-length) at their ReverbNation page [link at (www.) pelagic-records.com/artists/coilguns, the band's page at their label's website], but also a shiiiit-load of videos (9 of which are not really videos and, in combination with the audio files, constituting the complete album – among the rest a lot of live footage, mainly of the band's “older” material). Right...time to stop this, gótta move on to another album to review (never enough time to actually enjoy...what àm I rambling about? I've been enjoying the album for the last week on a continuous basis, which is fàr more that I usually get!). As far as I'm concerned, Commuters temporarily moved to the top of my “Best Albums Of 2013”-lists!