Discopathology

AMG Review of Discopathology

Ned Raggett
All Music Guide

Saying Discopathology is a rather loud album is at once perfectly accurate and fairly understated. The Noise/Girl approach, while not as boundary pushing as it might like to think it is, is still pretty thrilling -- after starting with a series of huge echoed howls of feedback and drone (the track title appropriately being "Before the Carnival"), an awesome amount of cascading white noise heralds the neo-industrial/dance blast of the title track. From there Noise/Girl revisits the legacy of Wax Trax and electronic body music as demented, aggressive playground. About the only thing missing is a vocalist barking out commands, but as an instrumental effort Discopathology does the business just fine, churning beats, flange, high-volume drones, and crackling static recombining throughout. Though clearly Noise/Girl would like to put everything in the red as much as humanly possible, often it's when they hold back just a bit, as on the slower grind of "Alive." Still, the results of songs like "Smoke'n'Mirrorz" are mesmerizing in their own overloaded way, snippets of disco and gospel-style singing careening through a tangle of sound that is more structured than chaotic in the end. Song titles don't always match sound, doubtless by intent -- "Honeyfunk" sounds like it could be a Cocteau Twins piece by the name, but Robin Guthrie and Liz Fraser were never quite so violent even in their early days.