People Helping People

Description

First thought, best thought—until the next one: a guiding principle for No Age across the band's 16 years of existence. They’ve pushed the elemental guitar-drums-vocals duo far further than any listener from the halcyon days of their debut album Weirdo Rippers could have guessed. And now, six albums in, those principles have brought them to create People Helping People, composed in their "pre-pandemic" studio and finished mid-lockdown in their new HQ, guitarist Randy's garage. The record kicks off with an instrumental. Nearly five minutes prelude Dean’s first vocal interjection—a soaring into the upper atmosphere, Randy's guitar clouds pulsing with radiation, accented by stripped-down percussive accents. When “Compact Flashes” bounces in on a deranged synthetic rhythm, No Age’s only recognizable sound is a sputtering of enchanting clicks and grinds—muted guitar strings and rattling drum clicks that loop for an entire minute before vocals and snare drum crash in. This is the sound of People Helping People: No Age, deep in the lab, scratching at the available core to see what new compound they'll turn up. Erasing starting points, rearranging the pieces, and starting over. It's an everyday mindset—it's also their first fully self-recorded album. Side one expertly ricochets between masterful instrumentals and vocal forms re-sculpted on the mixing board, as with the anthemic "Plastic (You Want It)", delightfully rewired over MIDI-warped rhythms. They don't truly land on a punk-style riff until halfway through the record, and even once they launch into a string of rock anthems on Side B, their aesthetic choices constantly redefine the norms, reinforcing their inherent power. With People Helping People, their disparate desires operate in perfect sync; early oddness merges seamlessly with classic rock propulsion, transforming their energy with the help of electronics. Randy's guitars are assembled into arrangements that reflect, once again, limitless curiosity and exquisite restraint. People Helping People is an unpretentious, wary, welcoming, confident, off-the-beaten-path album. The most accurate demonstration of No Age's philosophy put to record to date.