Handsome Furs : Sound Kapital :: Review
With Wolf Parade on hiatus, it’s not surprising that guitarist Dan Boeckner fired up Handsome Furs, his secondary group with wife Alexei Perry. On their third outing, Sound Kapital, Canadian duo Handsome Furs have taken a detour through the Eastern Bloc, the Far East and South America where their documentary-like experiences have enlivened an album that could be deemed multinational. On the band’s quest East, Boeckner wrote most of the material sans guitars out of necessity, primarily because it was easier to write on the road without extraneous gear. Boeckner’s guitars still figure into the mix on Sound Kapital although they’re not as prominent as the urgent electronic textures and melodies that dominate the album.
Sound Kapital was recorded quickly to capture the liveliness of the tracks and was produced by Howard Bilerman and Arlen Thompson. Sound Kapital is an album that is both immediate and topical as opener “When I Get Back” kicks things off with a squelched keyboard melody and insistent drum loop that never seems to give up as Boeckner details what’s going to occur when he returns from his travels. The chaotic “Damage” follows and contains a sample of a radio broadcast featuring a Hong Kong hostage situation perfectly encapsulating the mood and tenseness that would have occurred if Boeckner and Perry were caught in the middle.
Perhaps exhausted from this experience, the seemingly world-weary Boeckner vents in two tracks that bog down the album. In “Memories of the Future,” Boeckner gets upon a high horse and lectures his peers who seem to be content to waste time and fritter away as the world waits. The maudlin “Serve The People” comes off as hokey with its militant drum machine and staccato, glitchy rhythms that feel like they would be considered heavy handed even by Bono’s standards. The unrelenting “What About Us” picks up the album’s pace and forces it to forget the political arena for a second. The angular guitar and incessant keyboard strains of “Cheap Music” creates some heat that builds up to a repeated refrain of the title Sound Kapital. Closer “No Feelings” winds things down completely with a sonic firestorm as Boeckner sings of the joys of being a blank slate open to any new experience no matter how far it takes him.
Rating: 
