- Formerly (and controversially) Viet Cong, and made up of members of the band Women, Preoccupations are a noisy post-punk outfit from Canada that have consistently released music that is intensely dark and evocative. Frontman Matt Flegel described the band’s new album New Material as an “ode to depression and self-sabotage, and looking inward at yourself with extreme hatred.” That should give you an idea about what this album sounds like: dreary, desolate and despondent.
Preoccupations’ songwriting process has always been one in which Flegel and the band extrapolate and explore deeply personal feelings. Previously, however, this was done in a more emblematic manner, examining these feelings more as concepts. You only have to go as far back as 2016 when they released their self-titled album to see this (take the track Anxiety for example). In that regard, New Material is the product of a development in the band’s songwriting process. As compared to previous albums where they abstracted their inner-demons, on New Material, the band stare at them dead in the eyes. The result is a sound that is even darker, even more harrowing, and on occasion reminiscent of The Cure’s Pornography.
One of Preoccupations’ ultimate goals is to leave the listener clueless as to which instruments are playing at any given time, and on New Material they get closer to this than ever before. The fact that they have been able to achieve this without sounding robotic and incomprehensible is a testament to the stellar production on this record. The two bookend tracks, Espionage and Compliance, provide two of the highlights of the album, yet, at least in this album’s context, they juxtapose each other. Espionage, which opens the album is reminiscent of New Order. It contrasts a catchy synthpop hook with grimy guitar lines, static drum beats, and Matt Flegel’s distinctive growl. The album’s closer, Compliance, on the other hand, is a brooding, instrumental piece. An apt song title, it’s the feeling of succumbing to the dark, and those feelings of self-hatred Flegel spoke about. The synthpop hook from Espionage has turned to a grisly, distorted snarl. It’s a chilling way to end the album, and one of the more interesting cuts.
Even for a Preoccupations album, New Material is intense; it’s harsh; at times, it’s raucous and cacophonous. In comparison to their two previous records, it does feel a bit like group assignment on how dark they can make themselves sound, which comes at the price of experimentation. It is, however, exactly what Matt Flegel said it would be. And the band’s ability to capture and present depressive feelings so evocatively makes this project worth checking out.
- Jack Jones.