Northern Liberties – Secret Revolution / 2006 Worldeater / 14 Tracks / http://www.northernlibertiesband.com / http://www.worldeaterrecords.com / Reviewed 22 January 2007

Northern Liberties start out their “Midnight Train To The Dogfood Factory” is a slow way, but it seems as if the band will become increasingly energetic with each passing second. This occurs about halfway through the track, something that allows Northern Liberties to tie a brooding instrumentation with a chaotic output. Northern Liberties cannot be easily lumped into a specific sound, as what could be given them as a title does not related perfectly to any existing genre. They are chaotic, a harder, more noisy version of Jane’s Addiction, and they craft this sound into something that is simultaneously intense and thought-provoking.

The inclusion of tribal drumming during tracks like “Angels With Broken Glass Teeth” provides the perfect canvas which the bass can add onto and the guitar can jump off from. The speed which Northern Liberties can achieve is impressive and seems natural. The biggest problem with a number of harder bands than Northern Liberties is the fact that their speed seems to be crafted largely by computers, that no human could conceivably create the music on the disc. This is not the case with Northern Liberties, and this is why they succeed. While some individuals may be apt to put their music closer to a post-punk style (and this is a criticism that has a lot of merit), the music that Northern Liberties put forth on “Secret Revolution” and on tracks like “Mold” have a vitality that few post-punk tracks could achieve. The swirling eddys of guitar and drums that come to bear in a number of tracks on this album are perhaps the strongest outputs of Northern Liberties on this disc; the war dance of the disaffected and revolutionaries that will occur after listening to this CD will be prestigious, at least.

The band gets into their full glory with “Featureless Observer”, a track that continues the chaos and the Strike Anywhere vocals with guitars shredding that would be perfect back in any hair metal album. Northern Liberties are scavengers, using so many different scraps of influence to come up with something completely new and detached from anything else before it. I think that anyone would be able to find something that they liked about Northern Liberties; all one needs to do is give “Secret Revolution” a few listens and chances are good that individuals will be hooked from then on. Give it a go, for sure.

Top Tracks: Lonely, Featureless Observer

Rating: 7.5/10

[JMcQ]