In Enon, indie rock stops staring at its shoes and
turns up the synths, the grooves, and the volume. The
CD comes out of the gate with "Old Dominion", a
fuzzed-out love child of Black Sabbath and David
Bowie. As they trip through a kit bag of styles,
you'll sit up and take notice.
Enon was founded by John Schmersal, guitar player for
Brainiac. After a handful of independent CDs, Brainiac
was poised on the brink -- they had a nice label
contract in the works -- when their lead singer died
in car crash. Schmersal moved from Ohio to New York
and started over, hooking up with the rhythm section
of Skeleton Key, a band that never went quite as far
as some expected. Schmersal began making synthetic
sounds of all sorts for a rollicking kitchen-sink
sound on their first record, Believo!
The lineup morphed for High Society, retaining
just Schmersal and Skeleton Key's bang-on-junk
percussionist Rick Lee. The addition of Toko Yasuda
(formerly of Lapse and Blonde Redhead) on vocals, bass
and synth brings a new sweetness to their sound. By
the time they began touring with this record, Lee had
left he band in the vastly capable percussion hands of
Matt Schultz.
This jigsaw-puzzle lineup could sink a band, but Enon's rubbery style stretches so everything fits. Dig-it rhythms are underscored by synthesizers driving then tinny, trilling and groovy. Schmersal's vocals are thin and strained, but malleable: in "Pleasure and Privelige" his manic near-shouting is oh so Devo, but he whispers like Elliott Smith in "High Society" and croons like Bowie all over the place.
And while they may be individually all over the map,
each song holds together complete and unique. The
kickoff, that explosive "Old Dominion", blasts with
commanding, saturated rock. Here the guiding hand of
recording engineer Eli Janney (Girls Against Boys) may
show the most strongly -- to good effect. The heavy
guitars and pummeling percussion are loaded with both
a sexual drive and rock 'n' roll fun.
The straightforward "Window Display" is so fully
realized it sounds like it's already been a radio hit.
And so does "Sold!", with perky and swirling synths
hitching a ride with a simple guitar line.
When Yasuda is on the mic, the tones are clear and
sweet, and her slight Japanese accent is positively
charming. "In This City" glides on a low-key groove.
"Shoulder" lurches along with slow hot-and-bothered
rhythm, sparkling with a bright array of synth
intrusions.
"These days we sound more like a band," Schmersal
says. "More straightforward, more rock." Which is
absolutely true, but relative. If you listen to a lot
of Korn, the rock won't sounds very hard; if you love
Paul McCartney's post-Wings work, you'll be thinking
"wacko" in place of "straightforward". But for those
who are cozy with Beck or Girls Against Boys or the
Flaming Lips, Enon makes a hell of a lot of sense.
This CD was ready for release by their previous label
(SeeThru Broadcasting) which suffered an untimely
demise. Some time passed before things worked out with
Touch & Go, leading to the lineup change. "I have
always preferred bands that try to do something
different with each record," Schmersal says. Not only
can we expect more of something different from the
next record; what you see on the road won't be quite
High Society, either. But judging by the band's
trajectory, odds are wherever they go, things will
just keep getting better.
— 24 May 2002
