Bahrain
Texas platters
Reviewed by Greg Beets, Fri., June 18, 2004
Bahrain
This most definitely isn't the feel-good hit of the summer. Bahrain grooves on the anxious nihilism of displaced souls turned both out and on, though not necessarily in that order. A dose of their dark, wintry take on psychedelia is the sort of thing that might send meeker members of the love crowd running for the freak-out tent. "Trapped in the Ice Floes" is an aural historical plaque commemorating John Franklin's doomed 1846 expedition in search of the Northwest Passage. This Austin crew's fascination is with the psychological ramifications of facing a slow, starving death with no chance of rescue, which is ultimately a lot more disconcerting than singing about chopping someone's head off. "Metaphysical Freakout" motors a magic mushroom ride gone awry, while "Let Them Win" offers a crushing articulation of the willful defeatism that poisons one's psyche after too many losing seasons. Ostensibly a love song, "I Know Nothing Good" describes love in terms of hopeless addiction and ultimately calls for death as the only means of emancipation. ST 37 principal Scott Telles sings with an artful desperation that melds Wayne Coyne's tone to earnest stabs at Bruce Dickinsonian curlicues. Structurally, Bahrain's gritty guitar/synth rumble is rudimentary, but the crushing repetition takes on a sonic life of its own after a few rounds. You could lose yourself in those grooves, gradually succumbing to the notion of life-is-shit, salvaged from total despair only by the vindication that comes with recognizing it as such. Now who wants ice cream?