I'm not going to lie, the thing that clinched my download of this album was the cover art. The colours and editing are great, but what's that matter if the music isn't great? Catholic Spray are a Parisian garage punk, noise rock outfit with only one album available, which can be downloaded for free from their page over at the Free Music Archive
The album in question is a lo-fi, noise rock effort, backed up by snarling punk vocals. They have listed themselves as 'psychedelic', but in all honesty I don't feel that in the only recording I could find from them. Like most indie bands, this is also quite a short record, weighing in at only twenty-five minutes.
On first listen, this is quite a hard album to get into, as the recording quality hits you as 'muddy' and unlistenable. The vocals are hard to understand and the main bulk of the songs are noisy, thought this is understandable considering the 'noise-rock' label this album carries. As I persisted though, I came to feel that this didn't matter, as the punk feel and aggression came though and I began to not notice the elements that previously bothered me. If you don't particularly like this at first, I urge you, try again!
The guitars on this album are pretty good for an unsigned band, as are the drums and vocals, even though they are very lo-fi. I didn't feel much contrast from this album, and where I did, it felt thrown in and unnecessary. For example, at the end of 'OuiJa Drunk Party', chiptune beepings come in for literally six seconds. This meant that all the songs, be it with different starts, sounded very much the same. This lead to the record being pretty bland and boring, if I wasn't letting the music simply wash over me.
Perhaps I am being overly harsh though. The album is a great noise-rock effort, as I said before, and the band are most definitely punk in the way they play their instruments and sing the lyrics. If you just want to listen to some straight forward punk, then I would definitely recommend this album. If you prefer the more experimental, or better produced rock, then this probably isn't for you. I did enjoy the album though, despite my harsh evaluation. I just felt that more variety would have made this particular record much better!
On first listen, this is quite a hard album to get into, as the recording quality hits you as 'muddy' and unlistenable. The vocals are hard to understand and the main bulk of the songs are noisy, thought this is understandable considering the 'noise-rock' label this album carries. As I persisted though, I came to feel that this didn't matter, as the punk feel and aggression came though and I began to not notice the elements that previously bothered me. If you don't particularly like this at first, I urge you, try again!
The guitars on this album are pretty good for an unsigned band, as are the drums and vocals, even though they are very lo-fi. I didn't feel much contrast from this album, and where I did, it felt thrown in and unnecessary. For example, at the end of 'OuiJa Drunk Party', chiptune beepings come in for literally six seconds. This meant that all the songs, be it with different starts, sounded very much the same. This lead to the record being pretty bland and boring, if I wasn't letting the music simply wash over me.
Perhaps I am being overly harsh though. The album is a great noise-rock effort, as I said before, and the band are most definitely punk in the way they play their instruments and sing the lyrics. If you just want to listen to some straight forward punk, then I would definitely recommend this album. If you prefer the more experimental, or better produced rock, then this probably isn't for you. I did enjoy the album though, despite my harsh evaluation. I just felt that more variety would have made this particular record much better!
