12/19/2023 0 Comments War mongrels meta![]() This part of the war has been receiving less attention in gaming, even though it ended or changed a considerable number of lives and brought forward many stories of courage, comradery, but also further proof of twisted societies and the darkest parts of the human character. Even with their most aesthetically orthodox track, Total Control's total message is radical.War Mongrels, or WM, is an isometric real-time tactics game that takes place on the eastern front of World War II. The lyrics morbidly mutate: the "breaking" of the day becomes the cynical "break-in" of the day, and a prayer to "news" and "fame" becomes a play to "noose" and "flame." "Carve a space inside your brain," the robotic Stewart sings, "Earn enough of that cruel gaze/ And bear it 'til your back would break." "Flesh War" sounds like commentary on life under the relentless watch of overlords-further proof that electronic pop can be just as subversive as throat-shredding rock and roll. "Flesh War" looks for what's left in the endless possibilities of post-punk and says something real through it. It's the widescreen, mechanical-sounding focal point, with synths soaring soft enough to rest your head on without worrying about getting clawed in the face. Ghosts of new wave's past audibly haunt these songs, and "Flesh War" is Typical System's most straightforward take on that sound. ![]() Its dreary delivery makes the imagery all the more sinister: "Spitting on foreign lands/ On bloody stumps/ On glass/ We dance." A sense of duality exists within the songs: the opener "Bloody Glass" is galactic and glossy with psychic, pinging beats, but it finds Stewart berating "billionaires," "thieves," and "cowards" alike, as if they are all synonymous. Total Control benefit immensely from a knack for rhythm-their circling, lurching guitar grooves often simulate the repetition of the minimal electronic found elsewhere. The soft sax wails of the underwater "Liberal Party" find Stewart deadpanning existentially on a "Broken porch light/ Shattered sense of worth," before leading into the militaristic scream and snarl of "Two Less Jacks", which would not sound out of place on an Iceage record. Typical System's dynamics surprise at most turns, revealing their strange sense of humor. Above all, Total Control's fair bit of touring since Henge Beat has allowed them more technical muscle, and thus a newfound tactility and energy streak. The approach is not hugely different from Henge Beat-they've still got the toolbox you'd imagine from guys who variously play tough-guy hardcore ( Straightjacket Nation), primitive garage-punk (UV Race and Eddy Current Suppression Ring), and electronic dance music (Lace Curtain). But it's perhaps more satisfying to give oneself over to the record's bleak, peculiar breeze. Such questions are tempting, and it's easy to read into Typical System's densities. Across their discography, Total Control have been so idea-driven that it is hard to not intellectualize what they do. What's the "lonely operation" raging on garage ripper "Systematic Fuck"? Does "Black Spring" refer to the free-associating Henry Miller novel-and does the song's tense, motorik quality imply that its end-times themes actually stretch eternal? Is the title Typical System an allusion to keeping underground autonomy in the face of commercial opportunity? Does it matter? Whether these are self-subscribed mantras or not remains open to interpretation-but Typical System invites that. "You don't need a safety net," sings Dan Stewart, detached frontman and resident nihilist philosopher, on System's dreary synth-pop banger of a closing track. They released a blackened 7" on Sub Pop in 2012, and, had they preferred, Typical System could have been released on a label bigger than tiny Seattle hardcore outpost Iron Lung. Since the band's genre-smashing 2011 debut, * Henge Beat-*which fused oddball sci-fi New Wave and subtle beats with punk aggression and ideology-they've amassed a cultish underground following as well as some attention in the music industry. Perhaps these anti-conformist scripts are meta-commentaries on Total Control itself.
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