Self-describing as being like getting punched in the face by a gorilla but then being cuddled afterwards, UNIVERSITY are definitely something like that.
To be totally honest this EP is a little bit difficult to listen to but let’s just call that an artistic choice. Frantic and disorganised, ‘Title Track’ is an obvious attempt at trying to break into the harsh noise genre, especially the leading track, ‘EDY’. Barely a minute and a half of white noise, some sort of muttering about peace, love and happiness and just this sharp, nails on the chalkboard sound over it all that makes your ears feel like they’re going to explode.
Weirdly though, the songs that follow mustn’t have got the memo about this being a harsh noise album as ‘EDY’ suggested. ‘Egypt Tune’, is a fast moving, repetitive, rugged track that just rolls you over and over and over until it runs out of steam, working its way to a rather tame peak before descending back into the chaos from whence it came.
‘Notre Dame Made Out of Flesh’ is an incendiary track with swirling guitar lines and vocals that are foaming at the mouth, it’s an upbeat song but there’s an underlying fury to it. It’s actually a pretty refreshing listen, to be able to truly convey those emotions through sound, well it’s nothing revolutionary but there’s the beginnings of something that could be there.
UNIVERSITY are a band of very little words and rely solely on the noise they create to set tone and pass on their message and they succeed at doing so. For a debut EP, it’s definitely something to behold. Although a bit of a trickier sound to navigate initially, when you cut through the layers of mess, there’s a lot of complex pieces that come together to create UNIVERSITY’s signature sound.
UNIVERSITY: Title Track EP – Out 3rd November 2023 (Transgressive)
– King Size Slim (Live from the Trap) – YouTube
Meg is a proud Mancunian and Music Journalist. She started out by writing press releases for bands in her free time, but now runs her own website Dyrti which she plans to expand in the near future. She loves Lester Bangs and Tony Wilson and has interviewed bands such as Cabbage, Oceans On Mars and Adult Cinema. You will more often than not find her somewhere in the Northern Quarter.
