4 out of 5

Label: Expert Work

Produced by: Shane Hochstetler

On the cover of Denude’s A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees, a stack of old TVs are treated as a totem of sorts in the empty halls of some dated building, the gritty stock of the image further suggesting some bygone time. The music here has an early Shellac rumble to it, guitarist / vocalist James David certainly with a more pleasant tone than Albini’s, but effecting a similar “talking” singing voice, and never needing to scream. That bit is telling as well: Denude – a term which logically means the stripping of something, with the album title positing an image of capitalists, swarming about in a giant follow-the-leader cloud – play from the crowd, not on a stage. Almost gentle rhythms are given propulsive emphasis by the crisp, paced playing of the trio, and Shane Hochstetler’s arena-in-your-living-room production style; there’s an instrumental math-rock backing here, definitely recalling again Shellac, and particularly their slow builds, but also reminding of some more fringe stuff from the early 00s that combined clean playing with some edge – The Building Press; The Up On In; David’s lyrics carry urgency without resorting to call-to-arms or more vociferous finger pointing, hovering between sarcasm and sincerity with constant swipes at the working state in the US for those on the front lines. (I’d timebox it as being about “now,” as in the time of release, but it would unfortunately apply to most times prior to this as well… adding some thought to the bygone-time cover art still being a relevant totem to distraction nowadays.)

There is, admittedly, a sameness that can creep in there, with some of the cleverest lines from ‘Oh Friend Entropy’ or ’12th Battle On The Isonzo’ being interchangeable in meter and focus, and the talk-sing thing always at about the same register. For this reason, it may take an extra spin to appreciate the downtime between these more immediate tracks – tunes where the band revels in instrument interplay, building up a really immersive groove. Once the intricacy of that stuff starts to land, you “hear” more space between the vocals-first tracks and each song grows more distinct.

Even without that hook, though, Denude’s sound is a standout, whether compared to current post-rock peers or dropped in the waters of their 90s inspirations; those more immediate songs are the ones that draw you in, and making hitting play on a second spin very likely.