Multiple labels – 10 Sept 2021
Your fifth double espresso in audio form
One of the greatest things about writing for TGFEM, other than the hefty paycheck (“haha” – editor), is the discovery of bands I have never heard of before. Somehow, The Death Set is one of those bands and their third record How To Tune A Parrot was their introduction to me.
For those who were also unaware of this band: The Death Set is a Australian group living in New York that combines overdriven guitars with distorted eletronic beats, synthesizers and screamy vocals. Their sound is the soundtrack of those scenes in a Hollywood movie where the main star asks his anti-social hacker friend in black clothing to hack the mainframe for the heist. High-tempo noisy that sounds best turned up loud.
How To Tune A Parrot is one blast of high energy from start to almost the finish. It's your fifth double espresso in audio form. Do you need to focus and finish that boring work thing in your home office? Turn this record up and you'll have it done in 30 minutes.
Even though most of the songs sound kind of the same, there are certain highlights. Openers “Overloud Damage” and “Fall Down” want me to smash shit (the patriarchy or something) and the latter has a great sing-a-long chorus. First single “Elephant” has some great absurd lyrics. Starting with I got a tattoo of a person getting tattooed, It's a hipster ouroboros high on ecstacy… it only gets weirder from there.
I tend to like albums that have some sort dynamics between different songs. For this specific album, the same high energy through and through is actually one of its strenghts. The only slower song “Remind Me Who's Suffering” is therefore one my least favourite.
In short: listen to The Death Set on your favourite streaming platform and if you like any of the songs you will love the rest.
Quirijn's primary focus for TGEFM is on album reviews and band interviews. When he's not writing for the site, he can be found mixing sound at Fiction Studio, mixing up beats for as one part of hip-hop duo Breekpunt, or playing guitar for punk quartet Ink Bomb.