Times New Viking 'Born Again Revisited' (Matador) Released 21/09/09

Ohio three-piece Times New Viking aren’t ones for reinventing the wheel. In fact, you’d be more likely to find them foraging through thrift stores for vintage analogue equipment rather than searching out the latest technological advancements in sound production. Its just as well then that ‘Born Again Revisited’, as with its predecessors, sounds like it was recorded in a bathroom with all the taps turned on while the cistern refills itself at regular intervals. As the US underground’s current undisputed kings (and queen) of lo-fi, Times New Viking probably wouldn’t have it any other way.

Although pretty much an unknown quantity on these shores until last year’s Los Campesinos!-endorsed ‘Rip It Off’ enlightened them to a whole new audience, Times New Viking have since heralded a host of DIY noise pop acts on both sides of the Atlantic, London’s PENS and Male Bonding being two that spring to mind, and while the more serious muso would probably regale in horror at the thought of such shambolic craftsmanship influencing a worldwide scene, it’s more about the ethos and integrity here than any superfluous bouts of self-indulgent dexterity.

As with the aforementioned ‘Rip It Off’, ‘Born Again Revisited’ doesn’t stick around long enough to cause wrist-slitting spates of boredom and although it isn’t exactly a musical progression either, there’s more than enough across its fifteen tracks to keep the listener excited throughout.

Openers ‘Martin Luther King’ and ‘I Smell Bubblegum’ both sound like 80s US punks Excel duelling with The Fall and The Swell Maps in haphazard unison, while ‘Something Moore’ could be a Sonic Youth outtake without the elongated solos and noise trajectories. Elsewhere, ‘No Time, No Hope’ borrows from the Guided By Voices school of rock (i.e. make it up as you go along) while the keyboard-driven ‘Half Day In Hell’, sung quite incessantly by Beth Murphy is easily the most engaging ninety seconds on the record, akin to an aural carousel ride on some derelict fairground; preposterous yet thoroughly enjoyable.

Of course there’s always that underlying nag that Times New Viking will still probably be making the same kind of record as this in five years time, but as with that umpteenth can of Relentless or teeth-rotting bar of chocolate, you know what you’re going to get for your money and for the next quarter of an hour at least, the feeling of satisfaction is unequivocal.