Sometimes you read about a hyped band, and you’re instantly sceptical. You think they aren’t really that good at all. Then, when you’ve taken some time to actually listen to them, you realize you were all wrong to judge them, and that’s the story with me and The Megaphonic Thrift.
The Megaphonic Thrift is a noisy rock band from Bergen with great pop harmonies, guitars sounding like chainsaws (in a good way,) several layers of guitar that make complex patterns, and beneath you have the good melodies. It can sound like if Sonic Youth had a baby with Built To Spill, and Guided By Voices and Yo La Tengo was the midwife, and it can also be reminiscent of other norwegian bands, like Izakaya Heartbeat and sometimes Serena Maneesh and Motorpsycho. But I guess the biggest inspiration is Sonic Youth.
The reason why this is way better than most other noise pop/shoegaze bands you hear is that this isn’t people who just play popsongs and add a lot of noise, they play something different, they build up their songs differently. They have a generally higher pace, the structure is more advanced. The complex guitars are more like Doug Martsch, Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldos than Kevin Shields and other shoegazers. That complexity takes them to new heights, and makes them special in the Norwegian music scene.
While the energy and loudness is one of their strengths, it’s good with the little break that the quiet “Every Time (Oxygen)” offers. It is just the singer, Richard Myklebust, which I think sounds a bit like Wayne Coyne, and what I believe is a acoustic guitar. It’s kind of folk-ish, and can also remind you of one of the slower Motorpsycho songs.
When I heard the next song, “Son Of J” I thought for a second that they was covering Sonic Youth, and I’m not saying that they have stolen a part of a Sonic Youth-song, it was just that I really could have been a Sonic Youth song, and just when I thought I had captured the essence of the song, it changes and it sounds like Ira Kaplan (Yo La Tengo) was guesting as guitarist. Wrong again. Now it sounds like I’m saying that they’re stealing from other bands again, but that isn’t so. It’s more that they take inspiration from the cool parts of their songs and make something new.
The album ends with the apocalyptic title track “A Thousand Years Of Deconstruction”, which starts with just guitar harmonies and feedback before it builds up with a great crescendo of drums, harmonies and noise. The song is quite long, but it manage to keep me interested through the whole thing, and it’s a great way to end the EP. It just really makes me ache for more. I can’t wait for the album to come out!