Preoccupations - Anxiety

On last year’s ‘Viet Cong’ debut, Matthew Flegel spends much of his time trying to express crippling self-doubt, nagging unease and everything in between. There’s no stopping him on ‘Anxiety’, a heavygoing thud that’s mirrored by the Canadian group’s distinct instrumentation, a sense of fear epitomised.

Buried deep in ‘Anxiety’ is a shiny, happy hook. A four-note synth line, played in isolation it could find itself in a nursery rhyme. But Preoccupations surround the scene in ominous tension, one whole minute of noise easily mistaken for a panic siren. Flegel’s vocal, closer to a growl than anything else, gets wrapped up in a deadly web of harsh noise. “I’m spinning in a vacuum / deteriorating to great acclaim,” he sings, poetically conveying the darkness that descends when anxiety truly strikes. On their first work, Preoccupations dived deep in to a black hole. This time, they’re adding new shades to gloom, a new means of expressing their bleakest thoughts.