3 out of 5

Label: Africantape

Produced by: Greg Norman (recorded by)

10 years later, Big’n drop a 4 song EP on the odd-rocking Africantape label, likely not coincidentally around the same time as an odds and sods collection on the same label was released. With the two side by side, it’s especially easy to note how the group hasn’t lost a step, with Akins’ talk-shout snarl sounding as vicious and pissed off as ever, Mike Chartrand’s bass / Todd Johnson’s guitar muscling out ringing chords and stop-start riffage, and Brian Wnukowski’s drums always like a building collapsing – controlled devastation.

They haven’t lost a step quite exactly: this EP does mostly sound like a shot straight from late 90s post-hardcore / post-rock, with the majority of the tunes railing in some way against / about relationships, laced with delightfully raw imagery that’s not untrue to Big’n, but maybe also feels a bit forced to maintain that 90s post-hardcore vibe.

Which is where my main criticism comes in, as nor have Big’n gained steps at this point. On the one hand, proof positive they rock as hard as ever; on the other, opener Assholes & Elbows searches for a delicate way out of its crunch and gives up; Long Pig gets a bit repetitive without payoff; and closer Seaworthy starts heavy, and thus can’t amp up too much more for its conclusion. These are all badass tracks, mind you, but “Spare” reads more as opportunistic release than necessarily an inspired one – like the singles compilation encouraged the question if anyone was up for recording more, “yes, but we’re busy” was the answer, and so pieces were recorded separately and then brought together. I think this accounts for a bit of the lack of adventurousness here (or kind of middling attempts at it), but also suggests we wouldn’t have been too far away from the group figuring out how to overcome that, since they play in lock-step with one another despite the distance, despite the pause.