SOUNDTRACK: CONTROL TOP-Control Top (2019).
Control Top is an intense punk/new wave band from Philly. They are a must-see live. Ali Carter is a dynamic front person. Al Creedon’s guitar is a blast to see live and Alex Lichtenauer’s drums are even better when you can feel them.
This is their debut album. A couple of songs run over 3 minutes, but most are in the two and a half minute range (the album is ten songs in 29 minutes). While the music is mostly hardcore-ish, they have a very cool early new wave sound–robotic and precise. There’s angular rhythms and interesting juxtapositions all underneath carter’s (mostly) screamed vocals.
“Type A” sets the mold with screamed vocals, interesting lead riffs and heavy chords. Creedon makes all kinds of interesting walls of noise which never detract from the melody of the song itself. “Office Rage” has thundering drums and a cool change of guitar sounds midway through the song. not to mention when Carter sings “service with a smile,” the band pauses and she shouts “eat shit.” How they manage to squeeze a guitar solo into this 3 minute song is beyond me.
“Chain Reaction” has jagged guitar chords and a robotic vocal delivery. I love the way Carter’s bass holds down the melody while the guitar is just playing a wall of noise. “Unapologetic” runs to almost four minutes with two distinct parts, the main verses that have distorted harmonic guitar notes and Carter’s staccato delivery and the piercing high notes of the “who’s” the bull in the China shop now?” part.
“Straight Jacket” is less abrasive than the other songs with a more new wave feel and Carter’s vocals more melodic. “Covert Contracts” plays a lot with empty space–there’s moments with just bass and moments with just drums but the loud guitars are never far away, ready to fill in with squalls just when the song seem like they might be getting too quiet.
“Betrayed” returns to the angry style of the earlier songs–harsh guitars and appropriately angry vocals. “Ego Deaf” has a few pummeling drum rolls in just over two minutes with a bass and drum-only portion before the ringing solo comes in. “Traffic” is only 90 seconds long and it soars with harsh notes and angry vocals. Amazingly, it even has time for a slower middle section and a pause before the speed resumes.
“Prism” is a terrific new wave song. The verses start with just bass and drums and vocals. The chorus is crazy catchy, yes catchy. Although the noisy guitar squalls after the chorus keep it from being too poppy. The disc ends with “Black Hole” which shows off more of those drum fills and that rumbling bass.
This album is a cathartic blast and when the 30 minutes are over, you’ll want to start it again.
[READ: November 10, 2020] Mind of My Mind
I recently read (and loved) an excerpt from one of Octavia Butler’s stories. So when this book came across my desk (perhaps all of her books are getting reissued in trade paperback?) I immediately decided it was time to start reading her books.
Obviously one wants to read a series in order. But this was the book I so I hoped I could start here. I had seen there was a prequel to this book, but that it was written after this one. Just to make things more confusing, none of the books in the Patternist series were written in chronological story order. Here is the story timeline (and when they were written).
1 Wild Seed (1980)
2 Mind of My Mind (1977)
3 Clay’s Ark (1984)
4 Survivor (1978)
5 Patternmaster (1976)
So this is the second book written and the second book chronologically.
At any rate, I didn’t need the other books to appreciate or understand this one.
The premise is fairly simple, but the execution is outstanding.
We start by meeting Doro. Doro is an immortal being. Whenever he is about to die, his essence jumps into the nearest body (usually the one that is trying to kill him). He continues living in that new body with his own personality and memories His old body is now lifeless. Doro has many many many children. All of them have certain supernatural skills. None are exactly like him, but each has some kind of telepathic ability.
His most successful offspring is Mary. Mary exhibits a very strong personality and strong psionic abilities.
When the offspring are born, they are considered latents. After going through the transformation (which could kill them) they become actives. Doro has been trying to amass a vast number of actives around the world. For what purpose? No one is entirely sure.
Doro has Mary marry Karl, (who is active) while she is about to transition. Karl can help her through the difficulty. Neither one is happy about this arrangement but they quickly see its practical benefits.
Part Two introduces us to five actives whom Mary calls to her compound. They cannot resist her call, no matter how hard they try.
Seth Dana is a compassionate man who is looking after his brother Clay. Clay is an adult but is still latent. The pain of his untapped abilities is crippling and makes it almost impossible for him to live on his own. Seth brings Clay with him.
Rachel Davidson is a healer. She presents it as a religious thing, but it’s actually her psionic ability. She drains some power from her congregation and then heals every ailment that wouldn’t be suspicious to heal (like replacing lost limbs–which would draw attention).
Jesse Bernarr has created a town around himself. He rules the town and everyone in town is slightly in awe of him (he has convinced the people to be so). When he gets the call, he is just about to get into a fight with a stranger. Normally he would destroy anyone who fought him, but the call cripples him briefly and he gets his face beaten in.
Ada Dragan was stuck in a terrible marriage. She was pretty happy to get away.
Jan Sholto had two of Doros children. Actives cannot stand to be in the presence of children, especially their own, so the children are given to foster families. As we meet Jan, she has just discovered that one of her children was killed. She is not upset about that, but is upset what Doro will do when he finds out she picked the wrong family to watch the child.
These seven became the First Family. At first there was a lot of tension in the house. Mary wasn’t even know why she called them all there. But they also couldn’t leave–her power was too strong. After some altercations and Mary showing off her powers, things settled down. Mary referred to her power as The Pattern and her people as Patternists.
Once Mary gets the Pattern up and running, things start changing. Clay Dana suddenly transforms out of his latency–something that even Doro said would never happen. It seems that maybe with the pattern, Mary is more powerful than Doro.
Doro wanted Mary to be powerful, but he also wanted her to always remember that she reported to him. So her independence is concerning.
Mary starts calling out latents from around the world. She sends actives out to get them. Mos of the latents are children in abusive families (there are a few heartbreaking scenes of parental abuse). In addition to the good feeling of saving these latents, Mary also gets the power of their essence to feed on. Not the way Doro does, she doesn’t drain their energy, she seems to absorb it.
But just as Mary starts to amass a huge number of followers, Doro steps in and tells her to knock it off. She has been building the family too quickly. She needs to step back and see what she is going to do next before she can make the family any larger. She also needs to make sure there is a successor to her–she’s not immortal after all.
Karl tells her that Doro is threatening her and she needs to watch out. But Mary is not going to sit around and wait for Doro’s next move.
This was a fast, exciting read. I really can’t wait to see what the other books in the series are like.
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