If the term spastic ever needed an audio equivalent, Survival Tricks would easily fit the bill. While it is rooted in an improvised rock context, bits of jazz, noise, and techno fly around like shards of broken glass in an album that is as equally abrasive as it is spectacular.
Unlike, say, the work of Torture Garden-era Naked City, this is not a work of surgical jump cuts and stop/start genre hopping precision, but something more in league with Boredoms' earliest (and best) works.This is immediately apparent on the rapid percussion and repetitive guitar scrapes of "Lend Some Treats," which quickly drops out in and out of snare rolls and bass guitar hits, occasionally settling into some sort of vaguely funk groove.
When the band settles into a more stable mood, such as the scatter-shot but propulsive "Grimy Super Soaker," it almost starts to resemble an '80s synth band and their gear being pushed down the stairs during a recording session.However, for all its chaos and noise, there is an underlying song-like structure that keeps it engaging, rather than just being a random blast of sound.
The longer "I Heard You Could See Baltimore From There" does do a better job at staying in one place, at times settling into a more pop-like, though still highly unconventional structure.While it’s the closest thing to an understated track on here, that is not saying much.
At times, this overly kinetic sound leans into grating, abrasive territories, such as the constant, repetitive scrape of "Electrolytes in the Brine" that simply goes on too long for such an abrasive approach.The following "A Throbbing Sphere" goes for similar repetition, but its shorter length and less trying sounds make it far more effective.
Normal Love is one of those bands that make description extremely difficult.They’re anything but subtle, and at times, the rapid pounding and crashing can be exhausting.The album as a whole is a bit of an endurance test, but in bite sized chunks, Survival Tricks is a great freakout in the vein of early no wave noise rock that is best absorbed in small doses.
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