4 out of 5

Label: self-released

Produced by: Thomas Dimuzio (mastered by)

I respect the heck out of this, even though it’s really not the type of something I’ll listen to.

Which is: Peaches-esque raunch blended with Mindless Self Indulgence industrial-rap blended with outright noise – like John Wiese destructive noise – and yet somehow enough self-awareness left over to never let the whole thing bloat into the exact cringe or overkill that some of those artists on their own can generate. ‘The End of Irony’ is probably a funny title in and of itself, as Captain Ahab’s kinda two-man project made its bones on being sweaty and crass, and is still doing that on what was their final album… but that aforementioned self-awareness, er, ironically gives the thing this weird sincerity, even if the majority of the thing is a slew of predictable rhymes about partying and sexing. But when we veer too close to the sun of that concept, there’s an absolutely brutal remix (by William Hutson), or a track that seems like an easy pitch for scatology – Pornography – that somehow comes across as soulful. The sounds are, as usual, mostly uptempo club works, with alternate rave and 80s vibes, although that noise influence feeds in to some expressively expansive works, like the 8+ minute Godlike’s meditative trance, or the 6+ minute Feel Anymore (Edit)’s druggy haze.

This kinda stuff really isn’t my bag, but Captain Ahab are just firstly fantastic performers – this is clearly a bit of a gas, but it never feels like the surface level “persona” of Peaches or MSI, and the drum programming is just insane – and secondly, even though this is confusingly just one of the several editions of this album (featuring some different tracks and sequencing), it feels like care has been put into maintaining a flow, kicking us between party jamz and assaults and the slowtempo joints.

If there’s anything, besides the m.o., that acts as a bit of a roadblock, it’s that the production feels a bit shallow. There are live instruments on here, but the whole project sounds especially digital, and doesn’t really immerse – it’s maybe a bit too precise, and nearly clinical. That said, even curmudgeonly me is distracted from that by how damn catchy almost every track is.