WASHINGTON DC performer and underground luminary Ian Svenonius is approaching 30 years in rock and roll, having served his apprenticeship in such groups as Nation of Ulysses and the Make-up before graduating to more recent adventures with Chain and the Gang and this, his first solo record.
Introduction to Escape-ism is a joyously rudimentary affair, utilising little more than a beat box, a cheap guitar, a tremolo pedal and a mic to bash out nine punchy songs that recall elements of the Cramps and Fire Engines fronted by an addled hybrid of Prince and Jarvis Cocker, all yelps, drawls and lusty breathing, occasionally rising to a fragile falsetto when the flames burn brightest.
The riffs and song structures are sheer punk – brutally basic, infectiously repetitive and to the point, with a limit of three chords per song – while the lyrical themes dovetail with Svenonius’s career-long left-wing outlook. Rarely has Marxism been so damn danceable.
Introduction to Escape-ism is a stoutly individual set of songs imbued with humour, wonky tunings, attitude and an all-too uncommon adherence to the maxim less is more. In other words, it rocks.
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