Fifteen musicians coming together in one room can either end up being a self-indulgent mess of people struggling to be heard, or it can give way to a swell of creativity with mesmerising results.
In the case of this collaborative effort by Touché Amore and Self Defense Family, it has thankfully ended up being the latter, and ‘Self Love’ has turned out to be nothing short of astonishing.
Neither band are strangers to releasing split EP’s, with Touché Amore pairing themselves with everyone from La Dispute to The Casket Lottery in the past, and Self Defense Family having been involved in more spilt 7″ releases than you can count on two hands. Yet for all their worldliness, neither band has been involved in anything quite like ‘Self Love’
Over the course of the two tracks on ‘Self Love’, they manage to combine the emotive, melodic hardcore that Touché Amore are famed for, with the angular, DC inspired post hardcore of Self Defense Family. And although there are certain elements of both still present. the outcome sounds like a completely different band. One can only imagine how much of a daunting task this was to record for producer Will Yip (Title Fight, Superheaven), yet he has handled it with great composure, and captured every subtle nuance.
The A-side of ‘Circa ‘95’ sees a vocal trade off between Jeremy Bolm’s gut- wrenching delivery and Patrick Kindlon’s trademark cynicism, over layer upon layer of intricate guitar work. Lyrically the song pays homage to highly influential Californian hardcore band Unbroken (If you are unfamiliar, stop what you are doing and pick up their classic ‘Life.Love.Regret’) which is a joy to hear in 2015. On the flip side, the narrative of ‘Low Beams’ tells the tale of the highs and lows of life on the road, slowly building its Fugazi-esque guitar work, before exploding in a frantic crescendo.
The entire EP clocks in at around six minutes, and leaves you captivated, intrigued, and wanting more. It would have been great to see where they could have gone if it had been longer, but then why risk spoiling something so perfect. Touché Amore and Self Defense Family prove that they are both deserving of every bit of praise that is given to them in their chosen areas of punk rock, and ‘Self Love’ is a well-executed project that has set a new benchmark for split releases.
GLEN BUSHELL