Neutral Mute
Roc-Sac
Run-Roc
In just seventeen hot minutes, D. McNany scrapes, scowls and swings his way through the seven tracks on his Roc-Sac EP. The co-owner of NYC-based Run-Roc and the driving force behind Neutral Mute parlays the synth-led fury of Suicide, the chugging Kraut explorations of Faust and Neu! and the raw electro-pop of The Normal into a no-frills digital-punk set.
Choose any song randomly, from the garage-driven “Doo-Right” to the crunchy rockabilly ramble of the title track, and you’ll be greeted with McNany’s wiry, nerve-wracked impulse…not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. Even with all his haphazard tendencies, McNany is still able to show restraint. “King Killer (Drug-Dub),” with its languid beats, spiraling bass lines and jagged building guitars, explores the sleaze and sin of intoxication with frazzled sympathy. “No No No” closes at the quarter-hour with a Can-like meditation that teases with subtle straight-beat thumps and subdued bass thunks.
Beneath the uninspired din of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg contingent and NYC’s other hipster enclaves lies the sinister swagger of Neutral Mute and its Run-Roc ilk. The label’s emergence is validated by better music, and in the era of The Strokes and a million other knockoffs, that’s more than we can ask for.
Run Roc: http://www.run-roc.com
