’68 – Two Parts Viper

Without seeing it for yourself it’s hard to believe that ’68 consists of just 2 people, however former Norma Jean and The Chariot front-man Josh Scogin and drummer Michael McClellan make more noise between them than a stage full of people and have more ideas in their heads than a full orchestra.

Those who’ve seen the duo live will know that ’68 is borne from pure energy, passion and a decent dose of improvisation, which makes for a thoroughly engaging and exciting live experience. Trying to contain this on record seems like an almost impossible task, one they managed to some degree on debut record Humour and Sadness, and now to an even greater extent on Two Parts Viper.

At first glance it looks like the pair have taken a step towards conformity; they’ve actually gone to the effort of naming their songs rather than following the Track “X” system of their debut. “Eventually We All Win” might have a proper title, but that’s where convention ends, Scogin‘s raw guitar tones and free-form structures providing a vibrant opening to the record. Singles “This Life is Old, New, Borrowed and Blue” and “The Workers are Few” are the most structured tracks, containing what could be described as verses and choruses, yet Scogin‘s unique vocals and fuzzy wall of sound maintains the air of raw personality amidst the more conventional songwriting methods.

With hard-hitting noise tracks that allow McClellan loose on the drums, to slower paced, calmer tracks that slowly build and add a different atmosphere to the record, there’s plenty of variety on offer which makes the record a pleasure to breeze through. Whatever the pair put their minds to, it sounds excellent thanks to the fantastic efforts to replicate a live environment, sounding almost as though they’ve put a microphone in the middle of a band practice and captured it as an album in one take with warts and all. Scogin‘s vocals are refreshingly raw, particularly ‘No Apologies’ where his spoken word drawl adds bags of character and personality, making it one of the stand-out tracks.

In a day where many bands feel the need to clean every blemish and fine tune every tone that’s committed to record, it’s refreshing that ’68 walk a completely different path. Of course, it helps when you have the talent and vision to create seemingly endless tones from a limited number of instruments and use these tones to create memorable and infectious songs. ’68 is what happens when two musicians write without concern for image or worrying about whether their sound ‘fits in’; this is just pure, uninhibited expressionism and it’s produced another superb result. Scogin and McClellan remind us that when you let go of your inhibitions and write from the soul, music can be a hell of a lot of fun.