Denude
A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees
Expert Work Records, Dipterid Records
With a satirical smirk, Denude launches into the swarming “Phalanx,” the most intense of all the jarring and emphatic full-throated riots on A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees, a roiling debut LP of winding, math-rock complexity and post-hardcore hurly-burly from these Midwestern agitators. Shouting over an intro of crisp, naked drumming, “I get mistaken for a salesman / I resemble a Republican,” Denude continues to bark, “I’ll cover up the cobwebs / People talk, people tell me I’m a godsend,” triggering a mêlée of wheeling guitars and slamming, merry-go-round rhythmic ferocity. They’re taking the fight to the boardrooms.
Displaying a bit of cheek in “Phalanx,” a furnace of sound that offers both levity and bite, Denude unapologetically carries the flag for ‘90s indie inscrutability, industriously combining the well-sculpted tonality and clangorous, raw power of The Jesus Lizard with Polvo’s penchant for serpentine misdirection. Such elements roll around in the cement mixer of grinding groove that is the visceral opener, “Oh Friend Apathy,” its energy reminiscent of that generated by David Yow and company in their salad days, while an intense “Animal Tracks” turns itself inside-out on command and “12th Battle on the Isonzo” surges and circulates methodically, falling into a death spiral of economic unease and doomed insurgency with gallows office humor.
The swirling violence of A Murmuration of Capitalist Bees escalates, belting out lyrical obscurity like a more politically motivated Protomartyr, as the meanest low thrum often gives way to noisy nastiness and breathless, dead-end chases in dynamic free-for-alls. Whether it’s the stuttering “A Flying V” starting and stopping unexpectedly to quickly recalibrate or “Ypre” doing likewise but growing quiet and then furiously drawing up fevered equations on imaginary chalkboards, the tracks here are endlessly engrossing, with details going unnoticed initially on superficial cursory listens and later emerging as minor epiphanies.
Members of Piglet and Murder in the Red Barn are the catalysts behind Denude, a trio with ties to Chicago and Milwaukee. Neither of those cities’ underground scenes is big enough for the three of them.
