Mondo Bizarre Magazine

words: António Carvalho (edited by Raquel Pinheiro)
photos: Ricardo Silva

It was before a nearly full audience that the New Yorkers YHWH Nailgun returned to northern Portugal, after their debut at the Mucho Flow festival last November. Despite being dubbed by an American publication as “the last good band left in New York” (an exaggerated title, in my opinion), it’s clear from the first minute that there’s a spark of originality in their sound.

It’s difficult to define, but it seems easy to categorize it somewhere between post-punk and noise, a wide field in which some no wave bands from their city moved in the eighties. Their music is strongly anchored in Sam Pickard’s drumming, with its fast, elaborate and highly percussive rhythms (the use of rototoms helps immensely), inviting bodies to move.

Zack Borzone’s guttural voice and stage presence are other key elements, although the words he utters are difficult to understand. The sound of Saguiv Rosenstock’s highly processed guitar, achieved with a huge array of distortion pedals, is angular and dissonant, functioning almost like a second voice.

Dissonance is also present in Jack Tobias’ synthesizers, in a tone that is sometimes urgent, sometimes serene. The combination of these elements, meticulously interpreted, ever present and full of shifts and small explosions, results in something that confirms the cliché “first you find it strange, then it becomes ingrained.”

They began by playing their second album, released weeks ago, which curiously is only 11 minutes long and has 10 tracks, all around the minute mark. I even think they played it in its entirety, just like the tracks from their debut album that came after, released last year.

Zach immerses himself in his lyrics, as if exorcising inner demons, which contrasts with his angelic and contemplative pose between songs, looking at the faces in the audience. In less than an hour, they left people wanting more, as if they could deliver it and we could process it.

They have a somewhat mysterious and haunting appeal (perhaps that’s why the legendary 4AD recently signed them) and are the result of a successful experiment, such is the unique and cohesive outcome.

They’re not a band for the masses, but there will certainly be a vast minority who will want to get to know them and exchange strangeness for familiarity.