From the dumpy hollows of St. Henri to the gentrifying working-class corridors of Parc Ex, a mental tour of Montreal can be easily scored to the cresting and waning dynamism of Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Fly Pan Am and, now, USA Out of Vietnam.
Anchored by ex-Doughboys guitarist Jonathan Cummins, USA’s sprawling debut LP is a distillation of their hometown’s post-rockiness: the hazes of doom and swells of jangly noise, the vocal samples (a monologue much name-checks California noise-psych weirdos Comets on Fire) and Sigur Rós-y squeaks begetting exultant vocal harmonies. A harmonic noise record and a sweepingly dynamic drone record, Crashing Diseases And Incurable Airplanes plays out – as the title suggests – like a series of stylistic inversions and revisions.
More than a crossbreeding of worthy influences (Neurosis, Mogwai, Swans – you name it), USA’s transpositions of gloom and redemption, terror and beauty feel legitimately experimental – right down to the implausible horn sections.
Top track: Asphodel I/1322
Listen here.
USA Out of Vietnam play the Garrison Friday (December 12).
