E
Negative Work

After their more than positive debut in 2016 with their first self-titled LP, the trio composed of captain Thalia Zedek (Come, Uzi, Live Skull), Jason Sidney Sanford (Neptune), and Gavin McCarthy (Karate) reconfirms itself in stunning form and as one of the most solid musical realities on the international rock scene. A Band Called E or simply E is practically the confirmation that if you have a rebellious, assertive nature within you, that courageous heart filled with healthy combative fury, then age doesn't matter, nor should you consider what might be described as a kind of inspiration decline or a certain wear due to the passing years.

We are clearly talking about important names; in particular, it can be said that Thalia Zedek and Gavin McCarthy with Karate have written some of the most important pages of alternative rock in the nineties (and beyond). But this project here is far from being some kind of "improvisation," a thought that might have been dictated by the continuous activity in other projects of the three musicians in question and particularly the unstoppable Thalia Zedek, who seems to feel no weight of the years and continues to churn out increasingly beautiful records one after the other. Here, instead, it becomes systematic, a rule, and the confirmation that we are faced with a real band, which, following the release on the past May 25th on Thrill Jockey (obviously) of "Negative Work," is preparing to tour Europe. On this occasion, several dates are also planned in Italy (Caorle, Milan, Bologna, Avellino, Florence, Ravenna, Alessandria), a country that, particularly in recent years, is giving Zedek the rightful recognition and well-deserved following, probably also giving her somehow a role and a definition that in her case would not be "unique," but still significant and as a witness of a certain USA alternative scene of the nineties (defined there as "grunge") which in Italy, as in the rest of the world, had a considerable and prolonged following over the years, touching more than one generation.

"A Negative Work" was preceded by a couple of tough tracks like the bloody "Untie Me" and the album's opening track "Pennies" and was recorded and mixed in just four days in Providence, Rhode Island, USA at Machine With Magnets (Battles, Lightning Bolt) by a couple of badass producers in the circle of the legendary label founded by Bettina Richards in 1992 like Seth Manchester and Keith Souza. Evidently, more weren't needed for such seasoned musicians to complete a record that aims to sound as if performed live and has content that is clearly never trivial but perfectly centered on the contemporary US social and political context expressed in the fury of rock ballads like the aforementioned "Pennies" and the enveloping rhythms of "The Projectionist," the bass grooves and drum section of "Hollow," and surrounded in any case by those typical noise and electric clashes and obsessive thrilling like those of "Poison," the massive hardcore of "Down She Goes," the monolithic sound of "One In Two," and that June Of '44 attitude of the cryptic "Cannibal Chatroom." The final result is clearly very positive, and I must say this seemed almost obvious to me, however, it is not even a rule that if you have been on the scene for many years, you have the ability to maintain the same polish and that same nature that some might define as the golden years. On the contrary.