Attack Formation
Somebody as Anybody (Australian Cattle God)
From the opening notes of “Station ID,” you can tell Austin’s Attack Formation was running long before the gate sprung open. A pulp-noirish sample plays as “formation” is repeated over and over; this dive-bombs into the choppy “Pearl Snaps,” which punctures the eardrum with singer Ben Webster’s ferocious screams. From there, the momentum stays fast and tight, like an ashtray thrown across a bar during a fight. “Russian (Glacier Song)” recalls the thump and jerk of Swell Maps, slowly building to a cacophonous jumble of jackhammer bass and shrieking guitars. “Go to Ten” thrashes and “I’m Buried Alive” bleats and beeps like a song from Blade Runner. “High Noon” is electro-doom, and “Running Fire Thru Yr. Mind” is a dreamy roundabout declaring, “We’re standing up, and we’re not leaving.” The revolving door, instrument-switching approach to AF’s live show is precisely what makes Somebody as Anybody such a beautiful, trench-digging manifesto; they call themselves an “organ(eye)zation,” an anti-establishment cadre of sorts, an umbrella for dystopic sound and vision. A band but not a band. There is the crux: Attack Formation is everywhere and nowhere, rocking your face off while subliminally giving your mind a colonic.
This article appears in August 12 • 2005.