Procession: Procession | 4ZZZ Brisbane 102.1FM

- If you’re wondering how a band that sounds like New Order found its way to the home of brutal, arty hardcore in Brisbane, Team Glasses, I’m sure you’re not the only one. I can just about imagine the hardcore-heads getting together a deputation to let the label know it’s hardcore only round here. Just so you’re aware, this band have actually paid their dues: the brand new duo that is Procession -featuring Jarrod Birch on all the synthstruments and Gavin Barrett as moody frontman- came up through the central-coast hardcore stylings of Rage & Choke (I like how it sounds like that’s a single band, but, actually it’s two). Rage, which is still a going concern, is signed to Resist Records I think, so, that’s pretty serious. Lay that aside now, because it’s time for one helluva change-of-pace.

Procession’s self-titled EP is short and sweet (really) and was put together at speed; all banged out in the first couple of months of the year. I first heard their advance single Stillness, which is Procession at their most synth-pop. The riff really is pure New Order, but, thanks to Barrett, it’s as if New Order was fronted by Ian Curtis, which is a nice fantasy. I hear Procession are fans of both NO and Joy Division, which is no surprise and one of the things I like about them is that they dip their toes into post-punk, synthpop and everything in between. As it happens, they’re also fans of Cold Cave, a band from which they’ve basically borrowed their whole blueprint. Wesley Eisold’s side-project muddies the line between pop and darkwave and began as a chilly holiday from hardcore band American Nightmare.

I’m sure you won’t be surprised to hear that -for all the sugar- Procession is also full of inky darkness. Every song here is dictated from the therapist’s couch as Barrett wrestles with variations on a theme of “Everything’s come to a standstill / Feels like I’m not myself any more / Time’s slipping away now / Don’t know who I am anymore.” It’s a respectably gothic set of pipes through which he vents his dysfunction. From a foundation of rich baritone he can reach right up to the high notes and although it gets pretty yelly up there, that’s not a problem, is it?

The rest of the EP leans a bit harder into the darkwave and post-punk and occasionally it feels like Procession aren’t one-hundred percent across the clean production and unthreatening harmony you need to go pop; like they haven’t fully thrown off their DIY hardcore instincts. Hey, they’ve only just started this though and in a sentiment that’s probably echoed by Gavin Barrett’s therapist, it’s okay to take it one step at a time.

I don’t know how far Procession want to take this project: is it just a thought bubble between outbursts of thundering hardcore, or something more? For my money it sounds like the ingredients are here for something special, the harbinger of sweet and dark sounds to come.

- Chris Cobcroft.