STRAW MAN ARMY - Earthworks
STRAW MAN ARMY's first release was extremely hyped in my circles, probably due to some second-order social proximity between myself and the duo behind this recording-only project. The 2021 cassette Her Majesty's Ship OST was released on Stucco alongside egg-punk sounding bands with names like FROGMAN'S STICK OPERA and PILGRIM SCREW. It's—I don't know—a soundtrack for an apparently non-existent movie, complete with a backstory about the movie's production hell and fake reviews from a film magazine? I have a (admittedly somewhat high) threshold for layers of indecipherable irony/pretension and performance-art type obfuscation, even when it seems like there is an underlying political thrust that would resonate with me (something about colonialism, I think). Her Majesty's Ship didn't pass and I slept on subsequent STRAW MAN ARMY releases assuming they were continuing in a similar art-punk egg-adjacent vein.
Two intervening LPs later, and STRAW MAN ARMY has released Earthworks. I know that I am not the only listener for whom Earthworks represented a breakthrough for STRAW MAN ARMY; this record is on a lot of 2024 top ten lists. Listening back to their other overlooked-by-me LPs Age of Exile and SOS, I see a clear progression across two related domains that explains the resounding appeal of Earthworks.
First, the experimentation in instrumentation and ambiance (both audio and conceptually) is gradually refined and targeted. Everything becomes less eggy. The artistic pretensions necessary for an idea like Her Majesty's Ship OST are slowly shed. The label-blurb-writeup for Earthworks touts the "jazz, ambient, and Krautrock" influences, but to me Earthworks sounds like the most refined, post-punk-guitar-drum-bass-vocals STRAW MAN ARMY so far. The use of extra instrumentation (e.g. the famous Xylophone), ambient field recording, additional percussion, jazzy beats, etc., all become less scattershot and are instead carefully deployed with consideration and care (and to greater impact).
Second, the recording quality has steadily improved. Now, I am normally biased towards low-production-value punk but in this case STRAW MAN ARMY is greatly served by audio clarity. The crisp guitars, punchy bass, and rolling drums are all perfectly distinct and in balance. A catchy riff is all the more-so when the distinct parts of all three instruments get stuck in your head in parallel. But more importantly, the vocals are clear and intelligible. The emotional range varies from a low talk, to a talk-shout, to an occasional sing-song, to the urgent emphasis achieved by two voices delivering the same line in unison. No matter where the voices are landing, you can hear every word perfectly.
I think punk has often suffered from being somewhat allergic to earnest and clear political messages. Punk has not been a monolith in this, but it has been the trend. It has been cringey or embarrassing to make clear political statements in your songs. People shy away from the challenge of making a commitment to a political analysis that they must be willing to articulate and defend (or change if confronted with more convincing ideas). The reaction to this underlying political uncomfortable-ness and/or laziness in our punk culture has been that often bands will make vague statements when necessary, and couch any message in winking imagery or impenetrable artistic pretension (thus escaping any chance of real engagement and critique) or stick to safe and simple sloganeering roughly equivalent to shouting "Nuclear War Bad" over and over, ad nauseam. Of course, that's if the lyrics are even decipherable at all—often there is no lyrics sheets and vocal delivery can be made completely unintelligible through all kinds of pretentious vocal affects or cave-reverb.
So why is Earthworks so refreshing? Besides the music being catchy and driving, the lyrics express a powerful political message of struggle against colonialism, war, and the domination and alienation that global capitalism wields against us all. This is delivered without mask of pretension or hint of irony—only some poetic artistry and a lot of sincerity and earnestness.
On paper you'd expect a record where the words "United States" and "America" appear (gratingly audible) some half-dozen times to sound as immature and cringey as ANTI-FLAG and likely to be just as mealy-mouthed. Instead, STRAW MAN ARMY achieves a powerful combination of political sincerity and poetic lyricism—you can tell clearly what the song is "about" and be moved to action by its message, but you don't feel like you are sitting through a lecture. This is the promise of great anarcho-punk.
The label write up mentions ZOUNDS, but in terms of anarcho-punk I hear more of THE MOB, I think because of the plodding looping rhythmic riffs, the crystal clear vocals, and the poetic balance of the lyrics. Driving songs like 'Staring At The Sun' remind me of sped up WIPERS riffs. And there is something about many of the guitar melodies that reminded me of other 2010-ish NYC bands but I still havn't placed who exactly. Must just be that NYC sound bleeding in.
I do not know the duo behind STRAWMAN ARMY personally, so I can't speak to their actual politics. But as a long-time anarchist, the messages delivered in this record resonates with me greatly. Even though it sometimes feels like it has taken the past four years of particularly heinous and observable acts of dominating white supremacy and wars of colonial genocide to rouse punks-at-large into a higher level of political action and awareness, I am all for it. I hope the appeal and success of a record like Earthworks in this current age will show punks how much more powerful we can be if we all shed the safety blanket of artistic pretensions and isolating layers of irony and connect with each other—sincere in our politics and earnest in our desire for change.
(self-?)released by D4MT LABS INC. / La Vida Es Un Mus and Distributed by Sorry State Records in the USA
Listen here: https://d4mtlabsinc.bandcamp.com/album/earthworks
D4MT Labs inc.