- Elementary Revolt

2/11/2007

Cable - Pigs Never Fly

Tracklist

01.I Love it When You Crawl
02.Empty & Loaded
03.It's My Right to Be an Asshole
04.Shovel's Progress
05.The Reason I'm Poor
06.Human Landfill
07.Pigs Never Fly

Info

Another whopper from the long-running Cable here. Nearly an hour's worth of massively heavy midpaced sludginess, with plenty of mood shifts, starting off straight away with the monolithic 17-minute "I Love it When You Crawl" - complete with tons of lengthy instrumental passages making use of noisy guitar textures and droning notes over repetitive rhythms from the bass and drums (spiced up by some nice cymbal work on the percussion). Honestly, it seems far more like something that would be used to end off a full-length, especially in how it breaks down to complete noise for the later chunk of the track, so I find it to be a rather ineffective introduction to the disc, but it's a unique decision nonetheless. As a whole, this record represents more of the bitter, sludgy "stoner rock" for which Cable is known. I personally hate the term "stoner rock" and find this work to be darker and more menacing/creative than most of that whole style, but as a reference point I guess it makes sense. I certainly love the production. The bass is fuzzed out all over the place but still maintains a balanced presence against the guitars, which are fuzzily distorted but a bit smoother, and the percussion is totally warm and natural. Everything blends together perfectly to form a cohesively dense wall of sound, with the acerbic vocals falling dead center. It's great how the bass is literally as important and central as the guitars are, though. Nice work on that. "Empty & Loaded" is far shorter (less than three minutes) and more focused around some of the key rock influences, while "It's My Right to Be an Asshole" is much sparser and more openly melodic in a way, letting the riffs have more breathing room and dropping back some of the vocal aggression a touch (even going so far as to include some raw acoustic guitars, piano, and female singing for the second half). Seven-minute instrumental "The Reason I'm Poor" also takes a more diverse road, opening with clean guitars and powerfully thick melodies that are among the most blatant herein - constantly shifting back and forth between louder and heavier moments over softer and more spacious runs. The title track closes things out, revisiting the lengthier running times with a 12+ minute attack of ominous chord progressions and borderline doomy tempos/aesthetics that once more contrast hard hitting rhythms with softer and more open clean textures (making use of its time far more consistently and effectively than "I Love it When You Crawl"). The layout looks fucking beautiful, too. No lyrics are included and there's very little text at all, just some bleak landscape photos that create a very consistent visual atmosphere. Damn nice work there. Honestly, this would've been a stronger and more fluid listen without that first track (or were it moved to the end of the CD if absolutely necessary), as it's basically a 17-minute waste of space and I skip it every time I listen to the disc. Many of the other songs are some of the finest I've ever heard from the band (granted I haven't heard anything they've done since 2001's "Northern Failures"), so ignoring what I feel is that initial hitch in continuity/force, I'm all for this one.

AversiOnline

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ttp://www.myspace.com/cablerock

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2/11/2007

eraser at 5:31 p. m.