A little mystery can go a long way. Pseudonyms and shrouded faces offer anonymity with all its protection and freedom, but they also give an artist an air of enigmatic excitement that’s great for arousing audience interest – and hiding flaws.
Quad Throw Salchow guard their secret identities closely. Shadowy videos on the internet reveal a trio comprising a bassist, a synth player and a singer known only as ‘O’. Even their record company claims to know little about them.
In a culture dominated by reality TV shows and magazine gossip pages, it’s refreshing to know that not everyone is looking for fame for fame’s sake. This band want people to search for them discover the music for themselves. And why not? It’s a strategy that’s worked perfectly for artists from Banksy to Burial.
It’s fitting to mention Burial at this point, because Quad Throw Salchow use the throbbing post-punk of their self-titled debut album to evoke a night-time journey through London’s dark underbelly, just as Burial did with dubstep on ‘Untrue’.
But where Burial’s city is a 21st Century one, Quad Throw Salchow take us back to the black and white days of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Their pounding basslines and hypnotic synth work could be from an alternate New Order, one from a parallel world where Bernard Sumner’s vocal chords have been attacked with a cheese grater.
Strange then that O is actually a woman. As the band’s lyricist, O releases her inner thoughts as androgynous guttural croaks that add to the album’s sense of foreboding and urban decay. Even where the music seems like it might take things to a light place, as on ‘The Unwelcome Guest’, barbs like “Spending time with you would fill the room with shame,” return things to darkness.
By the end of the album, all hope is gone and you’re left with the inevitable march towards oblivion. Quad Throw Salchow are difficult at the best of times and suicide-inducing at their worst. Which makes you wonder whether all that effort you put into discovering them was really worth it.
6/10
Words: Stephen Harris
