Album Review: The Expectation and Experience of Dissonance

When hearing a name like The Bemsha Swing you would be forgiven for assuming you were about to listen to some sort of trumpety jazz ensemble, but if the creative duo behind the name have any jazzy roots then they have buried them under a tidal wave of high intensity distorted guitars and a punk rock ethos that permeates from the very core of their songwriting.

The Expectation and Experience of Dissonance is the first album artists Shane Warbrooke and Brian Purington have released together in a decade, and the wide ranging mix of styles, dynamic intensities and tones is a testament to their musical growth and change over the years.

Empty Leather is the first track on the album and also the first single to be released, it opens with a fast paced stoner rock guitar riff before a minimalistic discordant bass track drops in and dispels any illusions you thought this was going to be a paint by numbers ‘genre’ song. The raspy vocals add another layer of texture, somewhere between a classic punk delivery spoken word and a screaming chorus that demands participation.

The album then moves through periods of indie and melodic rock before coming to My Day Will Come, a song that defies categorization and reminds me of the borderless creativity of Ween, it’s an experimental journey through poetry and sound and the exact kind of artistic music I dive through old record bins to find.

Destroyed Chords pairs driving crunchy bass with an indie rock guitar riff that were it not for the sharp gang vocals would almost be heading into pop territory. Only to step back into stripped back stomp clap beat and a cheeky call and response guitar riff on the track Radical Sincerity. The second single from the album to be released was Kintsugi Kids, by far the most melodic and up beat track of the list. Its uplifting melodies are matched by the essence of the lyrics in finding beauty in the broken.

For a two piece the sound generated by this band is massive and the drum machine creating the beats is employed in a way that its mechanistic robotic rhythm is juxtaposed by the huge chaotic sound of the guitars and vocals, adding an emphasis to the chaos in a way I would not have expected and creates a unique sound within the various different styles.

The Expectation and Experience of Dissonance is an eclectic mix of tracks but carries with it a strong theme of triumphant rebellion and resilience. With one of the members leaving for Germany this could be the last we hear from The Bemsha Swing for a while, but to drop an album like this after a ten year hiatus I have a sneaking suspicion this is not the last we will be hearing from them.