Biography

Details: "Please turn the volume up for maximum effect"

This line is probably the safest thing to put on the back of a record in 2005. Thirty years ago, sure, this might've been the vanguard. Trying to get people to turn it up to piss off the neighbors or to give a warmed-over glimpse of what the band sound like if they were standing right in front of you. This theory has a few drawbacks for the average listener: 1. There are only a handful of albums that hold up well at maximum volume the whole way through. 2. Neighbors are usually quick to stop the loud racket next door. and lastly, 3. Most people's hi-fi equipment sucks.

So what's the point? Put simply, turning it up won't magically bring the music to life. The secret is to have the music sound deafening even when it isn't turned up to eleven.

Now, Part Chimp aren't the first band to use volume as their calling card, but they're definitely one of the finest. Sure, The Who were the loudest, but they've been phoning it in for years. My Bloody Valentine? The Swans? Perhaps it best to limit this discussion to bands that are actually still in existence. The point of this is not to say that Part Chimp is to be considered just one in a prestigious line of loud bands. Far from it.

A quick study of the songs on their latest and greatest "I Am Come" will prove that they've got the chops. Drone and hypnotic rhythm might've been Krautrock's signature, but the boys from Camberwell have appropriated it for themselves with tremendous results. "Bring Back The Sound" was released last year as a jaw dropper of a single and couldn't be more welcome on their sophomore album. "War Machine" served as the first single and provided a flood of noise, warmth and distortion in a cathartic bullion with b-sides recorded in a burnt out studio in the middle of the night on the Austro-German border. And finally, you've got "30 Gabillion." A two-chord chuga-chuga car crash that is so remarkably simplistic that you'd think the Ramones formed a noise band.

In this age where bands smash guitars on stage in lieu of actual performance acumen, it's good to know that Part Chimp are here to pick up where others have left off. And no matter how loud you turn "I Am Come" it will always come out as majestic. Welcome back, fellas. C'mon in. Bring back the sound. - Henry H Owings/Chunklet Magazine April 2005