In a year full of 90’s reformations, one of the most exciting is the please-don’t-google-them Prolapse. For the uninitiated (shame on you), it’s not strictly a comeback, they’ve been playing live again on and off for the last 10 years, but this is their first album full of new stuff since 1999’s Ghosts Of Dead Aeroplanes.
The first incarnation of the band saw them release four albums and their USP was the juxtaposition between the two contrasting voices of their vocalists, the gruff authenticity of Scot Mick Derrick, and the fey calmness (mostly) of Linda Steelyard, which at times could be intensely argumentative, but always thrilling, which combined with the relentless chug of guitars and drums, made for quite the combination.
So, the challenge I guess for record number five, was whether they could keep their intensity, are they still crazy after all these years?
Well, any doubts about that are declared null and void within seconds of the opener ‘The Fall Of Cashline’, which roars into life as Derrick rails against the world, and there’s a glowing familiarity about it, the passing of time has not seen them mellow, if anything there’s an extra steeliness about them, the shuddering riff building to a crescendo which heralds their return perfectly. There was nothing to worry about.
They seem much more confident than they ever have, turning the expectancy level of this album to their advantage, ‘Cha Cha Cha 2000′ sounds like when you’re trying to earwig into two different peoples conversations on the bus at the same time with an ear to each, there’s shout-outs to Cat Stevens, mentions of teeny-tiny things, it’s an intriguing amalgam, with yet more crushing guitar work.
‘Err on the Side of Dead’, the first of three songs to clear six-and-a-half-minutes sees Steelyard steal focus. with relentless shouts “I want to go to bed, I’m tired, I am dead”, was one of the tracks that were improvised and recorded on the spot at Foel Studio in Wales and the energy of this spontaneity carries it along.
The side one highlight, and something of a departure for them is the genuinely terrifying ‘Ghost In The Chair’ it’s a chat between the two protagonists, but it’s the way that Derrick keeps saying the songs title over and over, slightly creepier every time, whilst the sparseness of the instrumentation evolves around them makes it so goddam eerie.
It feels like we are seeing an older, wiser and calmer Prolapse, but that’s not to say that at times they still don’t sound like a couple who have recently discovered that they hate each other on a night out that has gone wrong, they have just become more tuneful with it.
‘Cacophony No.C’ is anything but a cacophony, it’s one of them groove-laden thrashy tunes that the kids love these days, unlike ‘Jackdaw’ , quite the noisy, undisciplined mess which sounds quite jarring, even though they would have swathes of these per album years ago.
Best of all is ‘Ectoplasm United’ , a swirling, messy but melodic delight, that roars along at such a pace, the chanting, almost rap vocals struggle to keep up, it has something for everyone including, of all things, a drum solo, it’s truly glorious.
A Forever signals the end of proceedings, a sparse recounting a tale of arriving at Leicester Forest East Services, and deciding to stay forever, in a dulcet tone that recalls the work of early Black Box Recorder, a typically fearsome note to bow out on.
God, it’s so good to have this unique entity back. No-one does it quite like Prolapse do it.
