To paraphrase Nietzsche, when you stare into the forest, the forest stares into you. but in the case of Hard Times Furious Dancing, this is a good thing as the Snapped Ankles want you up and dancing while you absorb their messages on “the absurdity of modern life”.
The ghillie-suited woodwose are back from recharging their environmental batteries in the wood wide web and like the mycorrhizal network, Snapped Ankles want to bring us all together, to connect us through dance and organic joy. Hard Times… is part-motorik beats and part askew electronica, but with all the electronic grit and grind of an ON-U Sound production. This is not just music to make you dance-and-forget, this is rhythmic-polemic that says you can dance like your shoes are on fire and still think about your place in the world: “the corporations sail the global seas…lead us to impending calamity, while they encourage us to eat, eat, eat, unhealthy” (from ‘Personal Responsibility’).
The drums are metronome solid, and this allows for all the peripheral sounds of percussion, bleeps and bloops to firefly their way around the tracks. The vocal delivery is classic Snapped Ankles, a mix of megaphone-at-a-rally echoes and feverish howls, with their wise-man gravitas running throughout.
There are no weak tracks here but there are some songs that have that extra-something: the swampy Talking Heads feel and chilling howl on former single ‘Raoul’, the menacing throb of ‘Personal Responsibility’, and ‘Smart World’ which made me think how great it would be if the Ankles teamed up with AK/DK; the kind of gig that would a tonic for the soul even as it wore out your soles. It has the propulsive energy of early DEVO with that slightly detuned synth sound providing a happy-queasy feel.
You can also help Snapped Ankles out as they have launched their GoFundTrees and Kickstarter campaigns. The band say,
“The cost of touring, as with many things during a global cost of living crisis, has gone through the roof. Tour vans, fuel, food and accommodation continue to rise, and that’s before you get into the added bonus of post-Brexit red tape. Add the cost of carnets and visas for band and crew, and the one part of the music industry that was supposed to sustain an artist becomes distinctly unsustainable.
In order to bring the Snapt Rayve experience to you we’re launching our GoFundTrees campaign. This will help fund upcoming touring for new album HARD TIMES FURIOUS DANCING. We will be selling our souls as well as the contents of the bottom of the ghillie suit drawer.”
The model of tour-to-promote-the-album has long since been replaced by release-the-album-to-promote-the-tour. With streaming platforms giving micro-pence for plays it’s going to see bands play live and buying albums/merch that puts money straight into the pockets of the artists. Even if you buy a sticker or badge you’re helping. Keep music live and keep supporting small venues.
Hard Times Furious Dancing shows that the Snapped Ankles have lost none of their drive and determination. You should come out the other side of this album with a quicker heartbeat and a strong desire to see them live so you can join the other wood-folk creating a human forest on the dancefloor. Primal, cathartic, didactic, euphoric.
Snapped Ankles socials: Website | Facebook | Bandcamp | Instagram | YouTube | Bluesky
Released on the Leaf Label.
Review by Paul F Cook
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