The Campaign For Real Time "Yes... I Mean, No"
By Kyle Wagner
Monday. Feb 27, 1:07 PM
Do you like your industrial space rock densely packed and marbled with attitude?

So maybe it’s 10 years in the future. Things look essentially the same. Cars are a bit more streamlined and new architecture has a few more organic overtones, but culturally we really are not much different than we were a decade earlier. A few new pieces of technology have made their way into the mainstream, but it’s not the holograms and perfectly-integrated nearly-invisible technology of science fiction movies. Or maybe it is 10 years in the past and someone has created a film putting forth a vision of what things will be like in 2006. There are images of urban decay, the world teetering on the brink of self-destruction, the detritus of industry further burying third-world nations as they struggle to compete in a world-economy driven by technology, etc. Whichever scenario you start from, the soundtrack to these visions could be composed of industrial retro-futurism that plays out something like Yes… I Mean, No from The Campaign For Real Time. These nine tracks manage to integrate the recent past and the near future in such a way that you can’t tell if they’re reflecting reality or creating it, but it’s obvious that they’re moving you somewhere.

Without much provocation, you’re slapped in the face with the musical and vocal intensity of opener “Turn the Gun on Me.” Imagine “Firestarter” by The Prodigy forced into a meat grinder with The Mars Volta (minus the guitar histrionics) and you’re halfway there. The song reeks of sweat and inspires visions of frenetic body movements while Run, Lola, Run is projected on a wall in the background. It also happens to be the first song I think I’ve ever heard that actually mentions croquet. That right there is cause enough for celebration.

“In Your Dreams” plays out like a bizarre Mick Jagger and Prince duet, but is strangely compelling. The two atmospheric interludes also work well. The first, “The Difference Between Knowing the Name of Something and Knowing Something,” is a beat driven, Wu-Tang Clan-ish experimental kernel, and the second, “Of Course We Love You But Now We’re Going to Love You With the Phone Hung Up,” is a soundtrack bit akin to Miami Vice meeting an ‘80s suspense/action movie that starts off in Africa and revolves around some sort of convoluted military arms dealing plot with U.S. government officials. Both of these serve as calm segues between the storm that is the rest of the album.

The best track is saved for last. “One in the Gut” builds on a dirty blues-rock substrate and is a bit more straightforward than the rest, but it is somehow more convincing. It has a sexual edge to it and undoubtedly would sound huge, gritty, and erotic live. It’s as if the sexually charged world of Led Zeppelin was married to a slow early incarnation of Black Sabbath.

With that said, there are some aspects of this album that are hard to get behind. For one, the lead vocals are often quite grating. There’s a smarminess permeating the delivery that occasionally flails out of control and betrays an underlying strut that can be off-putting, such as in “Something is Wrong.” But when this over-the-top attitude is held in check, the band are able to strike a delicate balance. The cover of “Instant Karma!” is also a bit bland. This song never really worked for me even when Lennon sang it (despite the fact that I idolize him) and this cover doesn’t really do anything with the song that wasn’t done with the original, so it seems unnecessary. But foibles aside, there are so many elements of so many different styles, so many sounds, and so much going on that it’s amazing how well integrated everything feels. Drawing from the past or from the future, The Campaign For Real Time presents a unique blueprint for industrial space rock that will shock you into paying attention.
www.c4rt.com

Listen to a song from this album in our Radio section!

Kyle Wagner

Got something constructive to say? By all means, rant away. Gonna blab about something unrelated and/or talk shit? Don't expect your comment to stick around.