By Tim Bolitho-Jones
If a song has a vocalist but no lyrics, is it an instrumental? This is the question you may ask upon hearing ‘RKTKN#3,’ the latest album from Belgian weirdos Raketkanon. Singer Pieter-Paul Devos performs every track in a made-up language, any real words that find their way into the mix are purely by accident. His voice accompanies a barrage of bizarre noise-rock comprising crushing synths, off-kilter guitar riffs and FX-heavy passages. They’re the spiritual successors to bands like The Melvins or Gang Of Four and this is probably the weirdest album you’ll hear in 2019.
It’s also going to utterly infuriate anyone that dislikes “quirky.” The songs all have names like ‘Ricky’ and ‘Lou’ instead of titles and veer wildly between genres for no discernible reason. One moment they’ll be unleashing a pulverising breakdown and seconds later it’ll be replaced by an extended instrumental that could have been lifted from an eerie 1970’s sci-fi movie. It’s as disorientating as riding a rollercoaster in the middle of an MDMA trip and following it up with a David Lynch marathon. Nothing here follows any accepted song-writing logic and this inherent weirdness is going to put lots of people off.
That said, their recent announcement as part of the Arctangent festival line-up makes perfect sense. The robotic bounce of ‘Harry,’ the screaming ambiguity of ‘Fons’ and the dissonant beats of ‘Hannibal’ will fit right in alongside the inner circle of the Math Rock elite. It could be that it’s all a massive joke where the listener is the punchline, but the screaming catharsis they offer is certainly intriguing.
But is it good though? Well…to be honest we’ve no idea. Music this unconventional leaves a sizeable shock and processing it enough to decide if you like it is going to take a while. This swirling kaleidoscope of noise could carry tremendous intellectual depth, but it could just as easily be meaningless gibberish that exists purely for the sake of it.
So, when the album closes with the dark Indie-pop stylings of ‘Mido,’ it’s still hard to tell what the point of it is. ‘RKTKN#3’ is unsettling, playful, eccentric and infuriating all at the same time. Anyone who likes music that pushes the envelope will want to check this out, although you must bear in mind that this could be nothing more than an elaborate Nathan Barley-style prank that’s taking the entire art-rock scene for fools. Recommended, but approach with caution.
- ‘RKTKN#3’ is released tomorrow (Friday 5 April). You can get your copy HERE.
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