PCPC
Ramsgate
DULL TOOLS
5/10
In the fall of 2014, Parquet Courts announced a tour with fellow New York band PC Worship under the nondescript stage name PCPC. Ramsgate is a live recording that came out of this short-lived partnership. Recorded in Ramsgate, England, this album is a brutish and often ramshackle slab of noise and rock. It also haphazardly calls back to the early origins of New York’s punk and noise scenes from the late ’70s and early ’80s—even a mutated strain of ’90s hardcore courses through the supergroup’s veins.
There’s a lot of enthusiasm on display, but the languid skronks and pell-mell histrionics can really test your patience at times. That being said, PCPC can capture the lightning-in-a-bottle novelty of bands such as Minuteflag, The Modern Lovers, and Loutallica. “I Know (You)” dials up the noise and “Lost in the Drain” has a delightful nihilistic streak. And the spoken-word punk track “Fiery Women” resembles a coiled snake ready to strike. Album closer “D – D-D – Do It” releases that venom in a fuzzed-out torrent. PCPC’s Ramsgate is still a curio overall, but it slowly burns down the concept of such a release and that counts for something.
