LEGION OF TWO
Riffs
ZIQ234
Planet Mu 2009
09 Tracks. 65mins23secs

Buy: CD | LP

On one side is Alan O’Boyle, a Dubliner best known on these shores as Decal, under which name he has released music on Planet Mu, Trama Industries, Leaf, Ultramack and his own Decal-Artifact imprint. On the other is David Lacey, a Dublin-based drummer and percussionist with over twenty years experience. Together, they are Legion Of Two, an unlikely combination of dark brooding electronics and live drums who have found in the currently hyper-active Planet Mu a home for their debut album, Riffs.

Finding their natural playground somewhere at the confine of industrial and death metal, Legion Of Two play with various shades of dark and doom throughout and fuel their music with seismic moments of tension, which radiate into heavy discharges of distortion and noise. Right from the opening sequence of (Intro) Starbound, where cymbals, noise and drums are tightly intertwined, until a much more heavy handed cluster of guitar/noise abrasion comes in, the pair define and assert the scope of the record and continue to do so, with various demonstrations of strength, throughout. At times, the balance clearly leans toward comatose robotic electro, spiced up by Lacey’s drums (And Now We Wait, Palace (Dub), Cast Out Your Demons), while at others, it is predominantly vitriolic rock forms that prevail (Starbound, Turning Point). In between these extremes, O’Boyle and Lacey sporadically settle for marginally more sophisticated chunks of contaminated dub, as they do on Legion Of Two, Handling Noise or It Really Does Take Time.

Occasionally, Riffs crosses through moments of relative calm, as in the second half of Palace (Dub) for instance, where the grit and noise retreat to let a gentler ambient motif for a moment, while on (Interlude) ABC, Legion Of Two devise a surprisingly light and playful piece, based on a fat rave-infused electro synth sound which, placed in a context miles away from sweaty dance floors, takes on a totally different feel.

The combination of heavily processed sounds, noise and live drums gives this album, and Legion Of Two, a totally unique identity, which reaches far beyond the realms of either electronic music or death metal. Despite its sombre undertones and heavy mood swings, Riffs proves to be an unexpectedly fascinating and memorable record.

4.6/4

Legion Of Two (MySpace) | Planet Mu
Buy: CD | LP