Easily one of the most unpredictable young acts emerging right now, Man/Woman/Chainsaw religiously offer oxymorons of charming, pretty strings and raucous, uncontrollable drums – their work changes in tone and rhythm from each second to the next creating a gripping cacophony of noise and joy.
Their latest single, ‘Ode to Clio’ is no different, the first half of the track presenting listeners soaring, gentle strings, paired with silky yet eager harmonies and yearning lyrics of heartache, pleading for the answer to, ‘What do we do when lifetimes fall apart?’
As the strings build to a crescendo, the song collapses in on itself, synth, drums and guitar splintering as rage erupts and orchestral chaos commences. An unstoppable hurricane of noise and passion continues as hectic drums and ambitious guitars compete for precedence soon to be dismissed by the soaring strings from earlier in the piece, whose simplicity and conviction permits them to emerge victorious.
Man/Woman/Chainsaw inside Issue Forty-Six of So Young Magazine. Order a copy here.
There is truly a sense within ‘Ode to Clio’, much like the rest of Man/Woman/Chainsaw’s body of work, that the band are simply having fun with music. They’re abandoning convention in favour of unrestrained joy, creating something as cinematic as it is incomprehensible. As the band’s Billy Ward says of their writing process, “we thrive on the thin line between pretty and noisy, often trying to jump between the two – it’s that chaos that excites us.”
With a busy summer of festivals and touring ahead of them and an EP titled ‘Eazy Peazy’ dropping November 8th, the band is certainly one to watch.
Photo by Ella Margolin
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