BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [February 2018]

musicreviews
FRIGS
Basic Behaviour
Arts & Crafts
Even when they were still Dirty Frigs, Toronto
quartet FRIGS stood out amongst a crowded
field of chorus-pedal-loving, grunge-indebted
post-punk bands from the nation’s biggest city.
Led by frontwoman Bria Salmena, the band
built their name off a raucous live show and
two solid EPs (the self-titled EP Dirty Frigs and
2016’s Slush EP after changing their name).
Now, after signing with the stalwart indie
label Arts & Crafts, the band return with
their proper debut Basic Behaviour. Like their
previous EPs, the album was produced over a
16-month period in the band’s home studio,
with supplementary production at Union
Sound Company in Toronto. The result is an
album that has flourishes of experimentalism
without losing any of its urgency.
On songs like the opener “Doghead,” brittle
guitar tones chime with chorus while effects
wash throughout and drones swell underneath.
Even on the most straight-forward
tracks, something in the background is always
lurking in the swampy exterior.
Much of Basic Behaviour is slow-tempo,
shambling along in its gothic atmospheres,
but when the band speeds up it’s all the more
noticeable. “Talking Pictures,” for instance, is
a motorik dirge that encapsulates much of
what makes FRIGS so compelling: skronky,
tightly-wound guitars, propulsive drums
and a vocal performance from Salmena that
oscillates between quiet speak-singing and
blood-curdling wails.
Here, and on much of the album, Salmena
reminds of Kim Gordon. Her poetic delivery
is rarely melodic, instead serving as a gravel
texture that anchors the rest of the band.
This is especially true on “Solid State,” a song
that could serve as the sister record to Sonic
Youth’s “Tunic (Song for Karen),” complete
with a droning guitar outro that feels pulled
directly out of the band’s late-‘80s heyday.
The comparisons to Sonic Youth don’t just
stop at the band’s sonic identity, but in their
ability to craft a singular mood throughout
the album. Basic Behaviour is a bleak,
distressing listen for most of its runtime,
but that doesn’t mean it’s ever a slog. Songs
never overstay their welcome and as much
of the album feels dour and minor-key, songs
like “Gemini” offer brief moments of relative
levity. It’s a synth-heavy ballad that wouldn’t
feel completely out of place on Angel Olsen’s
recent output.
Of course, “Gemini” is followed up by the
album’s centerpiece “I” and “II,” the two tracks
that find the band at their most outright post
punk. The latter song sounds like a Savages'
track with Johnny Marr filling in on guitar. It’s
a possessed stomp that sees the band at their
least optimistic. “This is shit / Just admit it /
Just admit it / This is shit,” Salmena repeats in
her most dissatisfied on the album.
“Trashyard,” a song that’s been floating
around the internet since 2016, feels like a ‘60s
psychedelic tune sent through a Oujia board
and come back through the other side. Like
much else on the album, it’s been reworked
and perfected into a meticulous, seven-minute
trudge through murky atmospheres. It
feels like a Preoccupations song in a benzo
haze, ending with Salmena reaching her
vocal apex, no longer annunciating anything,
instead offering full-throated guttural shouts.
As the last song on the album, it’s as if
FRIGS have finally arrived at the destination
they’ve been working towards the past five
years. As with the rest of Basic Behaviour, it’s
a well-earned victory lap that builds off the
band’s previous output to arrive with a compelling
conclusion.
• JAMIE MCNAMARA
Illustration: SOFIA ELIDRISSI
BEATROUTE • FEBRUARY 2018 | 41