Branding oneself as a “psychedelic dub interpretation of Joy Division” is a move certain to raise eyebrows, but Brooklyn noise quartet Jäh Division’s take on the music of Ian Curtis is executed with a remarkable amount of confident experimentation and self-assuredness. While it’s not surprising that Jäh Division started as a joke between roommates Brad Truax and Barry London, a self-described “good smoke and a joke,” their nine-track LP Dub Will Tear Us Apart… Again is more than another sophomoric meme album. Truax and London, in collaboration with members of Oneida and Home, create spacey, discordant soundscapes throughout Dub that rely upon components of Joy Division’s music as a backbone while expanding outwards into something completely different; at face value their music is familiar in melody only, with their phaser-laden employ of the Curtis’ vocal lines from songs like “Disorder” and “Love Will Tear Us Apart,” but the end result is more indicative of the group’s respective electronic instrumental chops. While not for everyone, Dub Will Tear Us Apart is an interesting, defiantly different interpretation of post-punk made by and for those who crave New York’s weirdest sounds.
Jäh Division will play a record release show on January 26th at Secret Project Robot, supported by Mourning A BLK Star. Stream Dub Will Tear Us Apart… Again below. –Connor Beckett McInerney (@b_ck_tt)