Tussle ~ Kling Klang
Kling Klang announes its arrival with a clatter that never pauses for the following 56 minutes. The forthright skitter of ride cymbals marches forward like a tall man in stack heels sliding across a frozen lake. Sounds like there’s at least three percussionists at work knocking and banging all sorts of things together. Somewhere on the scene there’s also a bass player thumbing out methodical shapes not unlike Peter Hook at his most lethargically insouciant. ‘Here It Comes’ indeed. This sounds like the ‘80s circa A Certain Ratio – same enthusiastic drive, same stripped down sound. I’d like to quote Liquid Liquid at you too, but I’ve never actually heard them so if you see some affinity between those two groups my guess is good, otherwise throw the suggestion out the window. Thanks.
‘Nightfood’ and its successors carry on in like fashion. There are some further ingredients added to the sparse brew of the opener. Vocal and more abstract samples are subjected to stretching, echo boxes and so on. These embellishments suggest another group of similar vintage to the aforementioned ACR and New Order references, namely Cabaret Voltaire. There’s a similar sense of alienation and bleakness though Tussle win out in the funky stakes: Kling Klang grooves! ‘Disco D’Oro’, for example, is the sort of dubbed out floor-filler that would be ideal to perk up lagging dancers in the most fleabitten of dives. If you like Tussle’s sound then you may welcome Kling Klang’s relentless drive – for those less enamoured, it may just drive you crazy. If you’ve read Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start Again: Post Punk 1978-1984 and are wondering to yourself where that attitude and sound ended up in 2005, you could do worse than give this a spin.