Vancouver-based post-punk band Dour were a three-piece when they recorded their debut album Agora. Sadly, bassist Gabe Jacob Ferman passed away after struggling with depression and substance abuse before the album was released. It would seem easy and trite to say he has left a great legacy, but he really has – Agora is as delightfully dour as Interpol’s seminal Turn on the Bright Lights.
A neophiliac is a person who loves new things, so consider yourself one when you listen to lead single ‘Neophiliac’. According to the band’s PR, “it explores the flattening of identity and the experience of living ‘screen to screen”. It begins like hesitant Beach Boys, and Ferman’s bass prowls in the manner of the most austere coldwaver. Zak Salehian’s languid, reverbed vocals are akin to those of Brad Hargett from Crystal Stilts, and he repeats “screen screen” within a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club haze. ‘Towers’ has a yowling, dinosaur, guitar Pixies-like intro, and Patrick Hamil batters his drums as if he’s summoning gods. A couple of lyric-less sections are as shimmeringly beautiful as the outro on Interpol’s ‘PDA’.
Salehian’s deadpan vocals on ‘Laugh’ are contrasted with the blistering swirl of doomy guitars and Bloc Party-like drums. It’s exhilaratingly controlled chaos. “I don’t refrain / From using harsh words to explain,” Salehian states on ‘Mundies’, sounding as disgruntled as Julian Casablancas reflecting on the pain of last night. His guitar emits distorted whines, and it clangs like pots and pans chucked down a well. ‘Numbers’ is jump started by scratchy chords, and Ferman’s steady bass becomes a canvas for Hamil’s fill-laden drums and Salehian’s alternately pleading and pissed-off vocals. “I don’t understand the meaning…I’m still waiting for a sunny day” – he makes Albert Camus seem as thrilled as a lottery winner.
‘Call’ is Interpol with a motorik beat, and it sounds as if it was recorded in a cave. An ascending guitar part could be a sinister fairground ride taking permanent flight. On album closer ‘Just Enough Rice’, Salehian claims that “a heavy mind wants to take a breath”. The track has a spring in its step, albeit a rather laid back one, and could be bracketed with the wonky ghost surf of Wavves and Spectrals.
Dour are a seriously good example of nominative determinism. Agora (AKA meeting place) is a seriously good album – it’s incredible that it wasn’t recorded in New York in 2002. Back then, we were all living under the cloud of 9/11. Dour are living under their own cloud, yet thankfully they are – as a four-piece – bringing people together by playing Agora and new material. If you were looking for an Interpol/BRMC/The Strokes tribrid, your search is now complete.
Agora is out now via Bandcamp
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Review by Neil Laurenson
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