Nervous Breakdown - Destination Lonely (Voodoo Rhythm)
There’s more fuzz on “Nervous Breakdown” than an ageing punnet of strawberries from the back of the fridge a month after their use-by date. The band responsible, Destination Lonely, is described as “three angry men from Toulouse”, and they sound more crankier than one of their countrymen at the end of a crash diet when they’re told by the baker that he's fresh out of baguettes.
Sometimes a large meal is best consumed in a couple of portions and that might be your best approach to “Nervous Breakdown”. It’s 17 tracks long and sometimes all that distortion and primal skronk becomes hard going - like on the 14-minute noise fest “Nervous Breakdown (big band)”.
In their best and more economical moments, however, Destination Lonely lay down carpets of steaming, hypnotic fuzz (no bass) in the finest traditions of nothing succeeding like excess. The substantial “Out of Your Head”, for example, stammers and shakes, and their cover of the Stooges’ “Ann” is almost as good as the original.
Heading this "fuzz is best" fest is guitarist Lo Spider, late of the Jerry Spider Gang and producer of all sorts of nefarious noise at his studio in the south of France. The other culprits are Marco Fatal (guitar and buried vocals) and mononymous drummer Vlad.
So there's a lot to listen to and to like on "Nervous Breakdown". Rather than hold some of the recording back, label honcho Beat-Man decided you needed to hear all of it.
"Day by Day" is creeping garage rock grave fodder with Fatal howling against a background of Poison Ivy guitars. "Nervous Breakdown" (the short version) is formidably forceful while the cover of the Troggs' "I Want You" is worth bottling. "Trouble" is a raunchy '60s punk raver.
This is a band not without extremes at the other end of the scale: "Blind Man" amazingly restrained and winsome with its whistling and storm sound effects. Like an early line-up of the Bad Seeds coming off a three-day speed bender."Sentier Mental" and the skeletal "Je m'en vais" are in a similar vein.
"In That Time" sounds like "House of the Rising Sun" after it's been condemned and the demolition order is being carried out. "Schizo MF (elektro shit remix)" is exactly what's on the label. Mercifully, it's only three minutes long.
3/4
