Sadaharu – The Politics of Dancing

No, They Don’t Play Baseball

Apparently there is a severe Ritalin shortage in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The Politics of Dancing, the new album by Sadaharu, bounces around like spastic 5 year old. Fretboards and vocal cords are assaulted in a variety of time signatures throughout this disc. Many tracks have a clear Jesus Lizard vibe to them, manifested especially in the manic guitar work and yelping vocals. Other songs, like the instrumental “The Axiomatic Principle Of Reverse Stratification,” throw in some stoner rock riffs amidst the fast picking and discordant off-time jazz chords.

This album is particularly lacking in the production: the bass is practically non-existent while the guitar tone is flat and unchanging throughout the disc. At points the guitar work sounds more like scale exercises than song structures, a technically appeasing maneuver that fails to leave any hooks in the listener’s head after they pass.

Vocalist Jeff Breil does revive some interest with his whimsical song titles and politically-tinged yet cryptic lyrics. A sample from “Lifestyle Tips for the Dead (or Even a Broken Watch is Right Twice a Day)” – “status check? stasis. state this: stay this course… the state of the union is shabby indeed.”

This album practically breaks a sweat trying to not sound like anything else in hardcore. Unfortunately, every track on the album tries to not sound like anything else in the exact same way, leaving the listener with just over 36 minutes of Sadaharu’s personal formula to post-hardcore expressionism. If you like it at all, you’ll probably love it. However, if you’re not hooked by the end of the first song, there isn’t much to look forward to.