Indie rock blogs and message boards are arenas where cynical witticisms carry more weight than well-reasoned ideas. At a time when most indie bands seem to choose their names as neat-sounding promotional tools and not as artistic choices that have a direct relationship with their music, it's more important than ever to choose a name that can't be easily turned against you. If the trio of Australians in Love of Diagrams doesn't care about this stuff, then they've got good heads on their shoulders. If they do, they've chosen an unfortunate moniker, wide open to readymade jibes. Their self-titled Matador EP can be fairly assessed as a diagram of the UK post-punk epitomized by Gang of Four and PiL, with a dash of Siouxsie in Antonia Sellbach's terse bark.
I'd be as happy never to write the words "Gang of Four" again as you'd probably be not to read them, but to discuss Love of Diagrams without mentioning them leaves an awfully large elephant lurking tacitly in the room. This EP has more acute angles than a trig exam: Off-kilter bass rumbles, guitars stab and echo with a metallic sheen, drums pound and skitter, anxious voices call and respond, and dub allusions proliferate. It's a full-bodied solution that enjoys the bottom-layer density (courtesy of a muscular rhythm section) and top-layer effervescence (represented by fizzy bursts of guitar) of a well-poured glass of beer, and its physical effects are just as reliable.
The first two tracks were recorded by Bob Weston, who did a great job of capturing the power of Love of Diagrams' rigid foundations and malleable melodies. The gruff sloganeering of "The Pace or the Patience" cycles seamlessly between a jerky swagger and a fluid sprint, only relenting for the mandatory dubby section with droning chants and skittering drums. Sellbach explores a more colorful melodic range on the sinuous "The Pyramid", where chaotic yet lyrical guitar workouts border spacious verses. "Cool (Live)" is a cover of a twenty-odd-year-old song by Athens, Georgia's Pylon, with sharp-edged guitars and sturdy drum rolls that fit snugly amid the original material.
"No Way Out" is an older unreleased song, one implying that the band is moving away from twitchy toward something more stately-- which means that despite the familiarity of their sound, they aren't stagnant. There are musical sins much graver than derivativeness, and Love of Diagrams have met what seems to be their goal: to resurrect the still-awesome power of classic UK post-punk for the umpteenth time. But the EP's visceral thrills are accompanied by the nagging frustration that, out of the countless ways you can combine guitars and drums, so many bands are choosing this exact one.
