A Foul Form

Its been a long time since John Dwyers greatest ambition for Thee Oh Sees was just to be the most engagingly psych-addled garage-punk band on Earth. The groups sonic trajectory and love of experimentation always testified to their creative ambition, especially as metal and prog became key parts of their formula on albums like 2015s Mutilator Defeated at Last and 2018s Smote Reverser. However, now that Dwyer has pared their name down to the efficient, five-letter handle Osees, it seems hes decided to give his music a bit of a trim at the same time. On 2022s A Foul Form, Dwyer and his bandmates have jumped headfirst back into the raw, energetic waters of punk rock. This is an album loaded with short, sharp shock -- seven of the ten tracks are under two minutes long, none break the four-minute mark, and the performances are full of hard lockstep drumming, red-throated vocals that switch back and forth from a bark to a scream, and lean, razor-edged electric guitars that buzz and howl. (The record closes out with a cover of "Sacrifice," originally by 1980s U.K. anarcho-punks Rudimentary Peni, and stylistically it doesnt sound a bit out of place.) Of course, John Dwyer being who he is, thats not all thats happening with A Foul Form. He frequently allows waves of electronic noisemaking and random synth sounds to wash over the performances, and if the structures of the songs are simple, theyre executed with the precision of experts. The longer numbers like "Perm Act" and "Social Butt" also give the group room to play around with tempos and time signatures, as well as allowing them to put a hefty amount of sonic weirdness into the mix, one thing this band have never been shy about, whatever their latest name. Compared to the grander constructs of their latter-day Oh Sees albums, A Foul Form is a hit-and-run job where the music jumps in, leaves everyone stunned, and splits before the cops can show up. Its a manic blast of pure energy with lots of smarts if youre looking for them, and demonstrates Osees are never short on daring, ideas, and the skills to make them work. See you in the pit! ~ Mark Deming