Cat on Form - Structure and Fear

Added by Nick on 6 April 2004

Structure and Fear, in the words of Brighton quartet Cat on Form, is the result of “discordance, freeform expression, shouting and dynamic loss of control”.

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Structure And Fear by Cat on Form

"Structure And Fear" Cover Artwork

Tracklisting

I Broke A Nail (5:42)
Sell The Kids To The Kids (3:58)
Mr. Spotlight (3:40)
Rock And Roll Song (3:08)
Set Them On Fire With Their Own Matches (4:21)
A Whip In One Hand, Gold In The Other (3:04)
Nothing Ever Gets Any Better (2:30)
Action Happening (3:52)
Back Off Man, I'm A Scientist (3:55)
Palace Of Lights (3:48)
Blood Drained (3:59)
Broken Dialogue (8:36)

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Too true. Seemigly pissed off with pretty much everything but drunk on hope for a positive place for humanity, they’ve transferred the ethic of punk into something more palatable, but equally as vicious. Between the horror-movie screams, jagged guitars and Sonic Youth-induced noise there’s evident thought and intelligence in the album. Musically, you can’t flaw Cat on Form. Solid drumming, pumping basslines and inventive guitarwork seal the album up in a tight package. No case of ‘We’re Angry and Just Want to Rock™’ here. Signed with Southern Records, they are ferocious, plaintive, surreal; all and more.

I Broke a Nail opens the album with 2 minutes of dissonance informing us of a society offering ‘everything that’s nothing’, before kicking off with a quality bassline supporting some truly vitriolic expression. It does a good job of preparing you for the rest of the album. The jugular attack of Action Happening, the rising tension and angular guitar lines of Mr Spotlight and the pounding intensity of Set Them On Fire With Their Own Matches with its echoes of Soundgarden sludge-metal.

But it’s not all full-volume. Nothing Ever Gets Any Better, Palace of Lights and penultimate track Blood Drained is Cat on Form marking their own circle – no, make that a rough circlelike emblem – in ambling post-rock territory. Admittedly I would have preferred to hear more of that side of the band, but I think it would detract from their instant impact. Blood Drained is a quiet track that instantly sat with me. Maybe I don’t have the leanings for the harder elements, but it was the delicate guitar lines and sedate vocals that brought me back to it first after the initial spin.

Structure and Fear is grim, beautiful, thought-provoking and pretty frightening at times. A sonic exegesis of the defective society of our time… only that most of the time you just can’t hear it.