Anxiety, S/T (2016)

Where bought? Through the band on Bandcamp. I can remember getting the free download in the Bandcamp app, which was patchy and annoying, and thus became my only album in the Bandcamp app.

This is a rarity in my collection in that I associate it with a recent-ish and particular time in my life, and that nearly all experiences of this record seem to interweave with memories of that time. Quite often records that I own come to stand apart from any individual moment in time, and generally-speaking I'm not a sentimentalist in that record=moment sense.

That time would be not long after the record's release. I was in a relationship with someone in Oxford. As 2016 became 2017, things between us went from fine (good) to fine (realising something wasn't working but nothing obvious anyone could pinpoint). I don't have anything bad or revealing to say here: I still respect this person a lot. It's just that the notes, chords, and beats on this record have a certain ability to recall that passage of time as things turned a little sour.

One night I recall going down to London to catch Anxiety headline a night at a rehearsal space in Haringey (awesome bill: Fex Urbis, Lowest Forms, and Anxiety) and then getting the Oxford Tube (a bus) back to her house at about 2am a bit drunk and giddy, but unable to communicate this to her because it wasn't her thing. And my thing wasn't the shitty techno she and her pals would go to London to do drugs to.

Anyway, that relationship ended nearly four years ago, and life has moved on apace. Whatever I found in the record and the band at the time, possibly as a diversion from whatever was (or wasn't, more to the point) happening in my life, I don't hear it anymore. Quite startlingly so, I was surprised to find. When I got this I played the shit out of it. This time I sat in confused silence for a lot of it, wondering what the fuss was about.

Anxiety were a big deal in punk at the time: cover of Maximumrocknroll but also had a little bit of crossover potential. They split after a single that followed this for reasons that are unclear, but it seems like the original guitarist doesn't do anything with them as the other three have been in a couple of groups together since. Most of the group are well-known and hugely respect on the Glasgow, national, and world scene for various projects such as Helena Celle, Apostille, Current Affairs, and the labels Night School and Anxious Music.

I have to confront that Side A, mostly ratty hardcore bangers, does nothing for me. Straight hardcore never did. Side B has their best material: 'VMD' recalls experimental-era Flux of Pink Indians, 'Trapped Shut' has the same turgid drunken ramble that made Flipper great, and 'Delayed' is a great piece of near-surf noise rock. But it's not enough for me.

It's not worth a lot so I'll hang onto it. If you're reading and you want this and the Wild Life 7" then drop me a line, but I won't hold my breath.