Album Review: Basement - ‘WIRED’
After years of playing shows, reminiscing over their old bangers and becoming more musically complete than ever, Basement are back after 8 years with their new album ‘WIRED’, showing them off at their most profound and well-versed to date while still maintaining that brutal tenacity they have become renowned for.
Basement has been around a long time, especially when you consider the life span of their genre, and to see them grow and flourish alongside it at every step of the way is one of the best parts about following bands in this scene. While their sound has remained relatively similar throughout their lifespan, ‘WIRED’ is an all-new take on that sound with lulls and booms that see the band cross ground that has not been explored in quite some time, keeping that same interconnected and vibrant feel to all of their deeply perceptual tracks.
Throughout the course of this album, we bear witness to some of the best writing and composition that this band have put out to date, a lot of which contains a softer approach than previous, which speaks to both the quality of their song writing outside of their angsty and brutal tonality and the emotional wisdom that comes with more years under your belt. ‘WIRED’ truly is Basement at its best, and to see them continue to grow keeps me excited for the future of this scene.
The album opens with the track ’Time Waster’, and to the average basement fan, this will likely be most familiar; it’s raw and punchy and embroiled with their signature blend of emotive aggression. It was a brilliant idea to start the album with this track, as its sense of familiarity and its blistering pace get the cogs turning, especially towards the end of the song as the final chorus kicks it into 6th gear and smashes its way into the next song through vicious chords and coarse vocals. This serves to open up the audience for the fresher sound and the rest of the album.
‘WIRED’ is layered perfectly; every track flows so well and continues a long lineage of perfectly assembled albums. If you have been following the release schedule of the album, its new sounds won’t be entirely new, but this works excellently as the singles are intercut with the heavier and grittier deep cuts, allowing the pace to change while still keeping the energy consistently high throughout. This pace is carried into the title track and debut single, ‘WIRED’. This track hits hard and with a sense of immediacy; its more astute and clearer vocals coexist perfectly with the whirlwind of chords and an all-time drum performance for James Fisher, who is also the drummer for lesser-known London hardcore menaces Dynamite. The rest of side A smashes through my favourite track on the album, the spine-crunching and brutalist ‘Deadweight’. This track takes the older, heavier sound of ‘Wish You Were Here’ and ’Colourmeinkindness’ and amplifies it; the guitar playing is more vast and technically advanced, the overall composition and finishing touch is so well thought through and intentional and really sees the band come into their own.
As side A continues, tracks like the other debut single, ‘Broken by Design’ and ‘Pick Up the Pieces’ shine for different reasons. ‘Broken By Design’ is a completely different vibe to the rest of the album; it has a more indie-focused sound and shows their best lyricism and flows out of any project so far. as the side A draws to a close ‘Embrace’ encompasses the best elements of all albums past and presents draw to a close with an atmospheric and elegant drum line mixed in with a plethora of man-made effects generated from the bass and the guitars. This pace escalates into a halftime riff that falls into place like a cartoon anvil. The pacing on this song is absolutely fantastic and reiterates yet again just how much this band have learned and developed since their last album.
Side B kicks off with ’Sever’ and its so captivating to see just how on form basement are on this album, the sound is curated for every listener and will undoubtedly have at least a handful of tracks that fans new, old and super old can build brand new memories to, sever is the perfect start to the B-side as it feels raw and overflowing with energy, the craftsmanship behind the desk feels slightly more laissez-faire, allowing the instruments to do the talking and conveying the teeming creative energy that has been poured into this project. This really helps the synergy of this album continue flowing without interruption. The two most recent singles also reside within the second half of this album. ‘The Way I Feel’, a gorgeously penned love letter to the genre, is the most sincere and intentional track on the album; it balances the scales right in the middle of the chaotic heavy sound and the mellow vibe-laden lead lines of ‘Broken By Design’, the song feels built around both the cultures and the people within those cultures that the band love so dearly and this love is conveyed perfectly through this songs run time.
The most recent single, ‘Head alight’ is the beginning of the end of this album, and it begins its sendoff in such a perfect way, it’s slow yet still grungy and muddied, creating a perfect friction between the slow and grating tone of the chords with what is likely Andrew Fisher’s best vocal performance on this whole project. to be both atmospheric yet deeply rooted in the sound found on previous records is not easy to do, but it is pulled off beautifully. as the album continues Basement continues to give their lighter and soulful songs to breathe, these track on previous albums have always been fantastic but it truly feels like they have come into their own with them now, with ‘Longshot’ being the slowest of the bunch, its nice to see that they have become a multifaceted powerhouse of musicianship.
As the closer started, I already found myself ambling back to the play button to get a second loop in before another thought could enter my brain. ’Summer’s End’ is a triumphant and all-encompassing track that truly covers all the ground that the band could want to touch on. It’s gritty and technical as the drums hit snare rolls that accost the succinct major chord and note progressions, it creates this perfect balance that Basement have become all too good at operating within, and they couldn’t have chosen a better album to ring out this valiant return to.
This is set to be an absolutely astronomical year for Basement, launching a slew of listening parties and in-store shows to accompany the release of the album, as well as some awesome festival appearances, including a coveted Outbreak headline slot. With the fuel from ‘Covet’ being launched into the stratosphere in the past few years (even being featured in the horror movie, ’Presence’) this album will likely garner widespread attention and finally break through into the mainstream, giving their unyielding talent and creativity its time in the sun, all we can hope for now is to hitch a ride on the back of their inevitably chart topping rocket ship of an album.
Words by Josh Pook
