These Are Powers

Just starting a love affair with the band, Dead Oceans has begun the foreplay by reissuing Terrific Seasons and this wonderful six-song primer. These Are Powers have gained buzz aplenty for their volcanic melding of noisy guitars and electronics to a primal stomp that sounds like Sonic Youth crossing the Alps on elephants. They also know their Swans, P.I.L. and even Siouxsie and the Banshees but they don’t get by on record collections alone. Anna Barie is a punk siren that cuts her Karen O. with a little Satomi Matsuzaki then lets hell break loose. The two gentlemen in the band (Pat Noecker and Bill Salas) prop her way the fuck up with oil drum drumming, arc weld guitars and shared vocal duties. Somewhere in the miasma there are still songs giving birth to themselves — that is power. A new album in 2009 and they will rule what’s left of the world.