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Album Reviews
Album Review: Flipper – Generic (Domino)
By CMU Editorial | Published on Monday 29 June 2009
Domino’s reissue of Flipper’s 1981 undervalued classic (along the rest of their first four albums) is a welcome move and one that has no doubt been brokered upon the back of Flipper’s recent new double album ‘Love And Fight’. ‘Generic’ is a thoroughly forward-thinking album; despite the band’s sloppy playing and musical limitations it is noise rock at its best. Flipper’s shambolic, noise-driven sound is a wonderful combination of Loose/DePace/Shatter; the three provide the slow, uneven rhythm, the layered bass fuzz and the impassioned and raucous vocals which is then blended uneasily together with Falconi’s scratchy and distorted guitar playing. It’s effect is powerful and engaging; from the opener ‘Ever’ where the ambling rhythm is given a quick pick-up by an almost pop sounding hand clap (seemingly to comic effect), to the final song, a seven minute punk/funk track entitled ‘Sex Bomb’, with only one lyric repeated throughout: “She’s a sex bomb, my baby, yeah”. ‘(I Saw You) Shine’ is equally mesmeric, extending to eight minutes in total. Shine builds and builds through repetition to a dynamic conclusion that sees Falconi throwing in a wall of feedback to glorious effect. Flipper’s innovative use of fuzz and feedback, sloppy rhythms and atonal vocals saw them hailed as pioneers of the emerging noise rock scene, with ‘Generic’ being a master-piece of sorts within that field, and deservedly so. SJS
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