TRIGGER CUT - SOOT
Soot: a flaky deposit of shapeless carbon produced in the combustion of organic matter. Layers of etymological meaning leave a powdery residue of irony around the title of this third album from German noise rock trio Trigger Cut. The Proto-Indo-European sed (‘to sit’) can be found alongside the word’s Middle English and Proto-Germanic roots - soote, sote, sot, sōtą. Circumstances surrounding the album’s creation assign pertinence to ‘sit’ equal to the word’s contemporary meaning. Fire destroyed the group’s rehearsal room in 2021, an event that left plenty of soot and members sitting around during an already limiting lockdown. The bird depicted in the cover art is the fabled phoenix rising from the ashes; not the most original or subtle of cultural signifiers, but one appropriate for this album’s blunt force. Trigger Cut’s return to the musical fold brims with pugnacious attitude, a firm resolve not to give in to calamity.
Starting over again has meant refining their
first principles: in this case, a noise rock template that has been hammered
out over their previous two releases, Rogo (2021) and Buster (2019).
Track titles like ‘Soot Song’, ‘Water Fukkery’ and ‘Landlord’ give some
indication of topical relevance vis-à-vis the fire situation, but the
lyrics remain as cryptic as can be expected with vocalist/guitarist Ralph
Schaarschmidt.
Trigger Cut adopt the coarse, derisive delivery of
Scratch Acid and Laughing Hyenas but replace those outfits' jazzier blues rock
tendencies with the skeletal structures of math rock. They embrace the
contained song format of foundational noise rock bands like Halo of
Flies and avoid the longueurs of the expanded and mathy post-rock direction
Unwound took in the late 1990s/2000s. Brevity is key here: track lengths don’t
exceed five minutes (well, a little on ‘Soot Song’). Stop-start dynamics act
not just as dramatic interjection, but rug-pulling cognitive reset: rat king
clusters out of Rodan and Hella broken up with choppy power chord punctuation
redolent of War on Everybody-era God Bullies.
The influence of post-hardcore boss Steve
Albini looms large as it has since Trigger Cut’s inception. Big Black’s steely treble
textures and machinic torsion inform Soot’s stylistic bases and
narrative direction. The whirling turbo of interplay that opens ‘Landlord’ becomes
with instrumental closer ‘Fury-O’ a threshing war engine gradually succumbing
to inertia.
The last few years have been tough for Trigger
Cut. Lockdown frustrations and other personal difficulties Schaarschmidt has revealed
through social media have culminated in the group’s biggest setback to date. A keenly
anticipated and prepared for UK tour in April was cancelled at the last minute with
the murky implementation of post-Brexit bureaucracy. The situation presents a
troubling sign of the future for artistic relations with the Continent, but it’s tantalising to contemplate how Trigger
Cut respond musically to this latest outrage.
(C) Copyright 2023 Text by Jon Kromka
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