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Consumed/Hot Buttered Anomie, the new split 12” release from Austin’s Beautiful Supermachines and The Distant Seconds, is an excellent example of how sometimes less is more. With about ten minutes of music for each band, the EP proves to be a nice coda for both bands after their well-received debuts. Any more than the three songs per band and things might have gotten too heavy; instead, listeners are left waiting and wanting more.
“Hot Buttered Anomie,” The Distant Seconds’ half of the record, picks up right where their red-hot debut Spectral Evidence left off in late 2008. “Between The Brackets” continues the taut and tense interplay between Matt Baab’s guitar playing and Brandon Bunch’s synthesizers that made much of Spectral Evidence so great. For fans of their debut, “Between The Brackets” will be the clear favorite on “Hot Buttered Anomie.” On both “(I’m Here For Your) Severed Head” and “(I Don’t Want To Go Back To) Memphis”, Baab’s songs take a darker tack; Relying heavily on Bunch’s ambient washes of noise over Charles Ewing’s simple and restrained drumming, Baab sounds oddly disconnected. This is a guy who sung about being unstoppable – now he sounds weary and detached. The result is an interesting direction for The Distant Seconds and, hopefully, an exciting indicator of the band’s refusal to rehash the same (admittedly amazing) tricks as it continues working on their next full-length release.
As with The Distant Seconds “Between The Brackets”, Beautiful Supermachines’ first track would fit perfectly on their previous album, Shut Up. “Consumed”, the title track to the three song EP, is another fuzzy chunk of brilliant song writing by frontman and mastermind David Williams. Starting restrained and quickly building to a triumphant conclusion complete with unhinged bashing drums, blistering guitars, and what sounds like a drunken brass section, “Consumed” is exactly what fans of Beautiful Supermachines have come to love and adore. “Radical Superjectivity” and “Conical Ash (Demo)” don’t stray too far from the Machines’ core sound of hooks hidden under purposefully sloppy guitar haze, but neither reaches the grand height of “Consumed” (or most of Shut Up).
All in all, the six song EP is a great way to remind everyone that neither band is resting on their laurels after their impressive debuts. By turning out a couple of songs right in their musical sweet spots as well as expanding a bit, The Distant Seconds and Beautiful Supermachines are poised to avoid the sophomore slump. Here’s to them fulfilling that prophecy!
