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Consolidated | The End of Meaning

Rock that sounds like Pitchshifter having a day off.
CD, self-released

Tekst: Theo Ploeg

Publicatiedatum: 05 juni 2002

At the end of the Eighties, Consolidated became quite successful with records like The Myth of Rock and Friendly Fascism, albums that weren't that good musically, but that mixed activism with different kinds of dance music. The energetic live shows did the rest. As a left-wing activist, I liked Consolidated, but many of my friends considered them too political. Maybe they were right. After playing The End of Meaning for the first time, I searched for my old Friendly Fascism tape and found myself busy playing old industrial dance music (Meat Beat Manifesto, Numb) the whole evening. Since Business of Punishment (1984), Consolidated drifted away from the area of industrial dance music. They also became less and less obviously political. 1998's Dropped even sounded desperate, like the band had left the world of activism and were trying to save the world playing bluesy, outdated rock music. In that sense, The End of Meaning is a step forward: The music is much more aggressive, the activism back in the form of dialogue between the tracks, and mainman Adam Sherburne is singing (preaching) like never before. The problem with The End of Meaning simply is that it sounds terribly outdated. Not that music always has to be up-front, but the loud rock with Hendrix influences is often too boring to listen to. On a couple of tracks, some dance and pop influences get through, but the basis always remains rock, rock that sounds in its best moments like Pitchshifter having a day off. Consolidated isn't the soundtrack for freeing animals from cages, protesting against globalization, and rioting for a better healthcare system anymore.

http://www.kindamuzik.net/recensie/consolidated/the-end-of-meaning/1594/
Meer Consolidated op KindaMuzik: http://www.kindamuzik.net/artiest/consolidated