Electronica/Industrial/Grindcore is how these two Dublin lads tag themselves. I am no expert in this type of music, so it was with trepidation that I set about listening to the latest Planet Mu release. I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I had heard of Decal (one half of the “Two”) before. Ireland being a pretty small place, while having an abundance of electronic music talent, I had heard his more mainstream electronic meanderings, and been quietly impressed.
It seems that Legion of Two are exploring a side of music that is probably largely misunderstood. To be honest there were some points on listening to "Riffs" where I didn’t "get it" either. It wasn’t that I don’t like getting assaulted with noise, it is just that when the whole of "Riffs" is an aural assault, it is only the listener that suffers. I am going to go easy on Legion of Two, as they are fellow Irishman, and in fairness they are doing something that not many in the world understand, let alone try and do, but I have to be honest it isn’t the best release you are going to hear from an esteemed label like Planet Mu. That is not to say that Legion of Two, in the future, won’t produce some epic, industrial noise music. They probably will, but you get the sense that perhaps this album was rushed a little.
Legion of Two are pretty dark, noisy, distorted and definitely LO-FI in their sound. It is just that the album never changes course. Never tries to do anything different. It just tries to assault you with different delay, reverb, distortion and overdrive settings. When this “organised chaos” is coupled with a drum kit you get the impression that it is probably quite an interesting live performance, but for a CD album for listening to at home, I would shudder to think of the mood you would have top be to put it on your stereo!
There are some interesting moments on "Riffs", don’t get me wrong. Most notably on Track Eight “It really does take time”, with its use of a vocal sample, and a more easily danceable beat. The natural highs and lows you get from traversing and manipulating various effects units gives a nice wave structure to "Riffs", but I still would find it hard to listen too from start to finish, no matter how inebriated a state I was in.
Legion of Two are definitely an experimental band. Perhaps they should have waited a little longer with this album, used a little more “studio nous”, and given the album more of a “human” feel. Not always does interesting live experimentation transfer well to a “pre-packaged” CD.
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