Relish this Moment

Big Business - Here Come the Waterworks

Hydra Head; 2007

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After hearing last year's Melvins record, (a) Senile Animal, my life sort of went through a transitional phase. Or at least my musical listening habits. The record had this sludgy energy that I just couldn't get enough of. I dug through some back Melvins records and found a very similar sound, but some components were missing. Energy, mostly, and a sort of sense of melody that old Melvins music (and certainly newer Melvins music) somehow lacked.

I'm pretty sure that the two members of Big Business who joined the Melvins - or maybe it's (the) Melvins - contributed a huge amount in terms of melody and energy, and those two things are the main feature and draw of this album. It's there - pummelling drums and sludgy, guitarry bass and the vocals - it's all about energy while maintaining melody.

The first thing a listener might notice about this record is the mix, because the production of the album pretty much frames the band. The band credits a guitar player/noise maker, but it comprised mainly of a bass/drums/vocals combination. Of course, it's nowhere as stripped down as that sounds. To fill in the sound, to flesh it out, there are tons of layers, tons of feedback and waves of noise. Still, it's not distracting and ambient at all. The sound is all noise, and all the noise goes in the same direction. It's mostly bass-heavy, with deeper drums more focused on the heads and away from the cymbals. The bass is there but as the main instrument; it carries a lot of melody and is drenched in effects. For sound's sake, it's like a low-tuned guitar.

The vocals carry a lot of the mix as well, but they're nowhere near the front of the mix. You can hardly understand any of the words, but that doesn't seem to matter. It's like there is somebody singing (or just as often screaming, or maybe yelling, always loud but always in tune and adding to melody) at the far end of a large empty room. The vocals fold into the layers of noisy music, adding another dimension, adding more sound. And of course, everything is driven by some excellent drumming that is both all over the place and incredibly well restrained.

And hidden in all of this messy production comes the sense of melody. Perhaps the tunes might lean towards gloomy, if melodies can do that. Even so, the flow of notes is meaningful, and these songs will get stuck in your head, and in a really good, really driving sort of way.

There is something of a stripped-down punk feel, but it's not stripped down or punk at all. Big Business is not metal, or at least sure doesn't follow the wanky metal dynamic. I think it would take a pretty open-minded fan of louder music to get into this record enough to let the underlying melodies seem in, but if you have the ears and the patience, Here Come the Waterworks is a totally rewarding album.

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By the way, you can hear Here Come the Waterworks in its entirety at http://www.herecomethewaterworks.com/.