Git Some - Loose Control (Cover Artwork)
Staff Review

Git Some

Loose Control (2010)

Alternative Tentacles


Loose Control, the title of Git Some's second full-length, is startlingly accurate. While the band's first release, Cosmic Rock, featured the band playing equally with the concepts of old-school punk and post-rock, on Loose Control the band lets it all hang out and swing around while being firmly attached to a grounded source.

Taking a lesson or 10,000 from Mr. Greg Ginn, guitarist Chuck French deftly masters the art of discord, abutting screeching wails against deep chugs. But, while even later-day Ginn could get a little too advanced for most ears, French takes his shambling, buzzing guitar just to the edge of avant-garde experimentation, only to snap back into the other style perfected by Ginn: the smashing three-chord attack that is genius in its simplicity. While not all of French's riffs (and there are dozens and dozens of them on this album) are as good as the stuff found on The First Four Years, he holds up better than most in the screechy/berserk guitar arena. Most importantly, while French is obviously inspired by Black Flag, his riffs borrow more in the form of philosophy than they do in technicality, so it feels as though his playing is tapping into the elements that gave birth to early hardcore legends rather than seeming like mindful duplication

But, Loose Control is far from an all-French show. Although the band is a bit more frantic than most of the early hardcore records, flipping back and forth between movements multiple times in most of their two-minute tracks, they don't quite approach mathcore territory. Rather, despite the shambling quality of the band's playing, the bass and drums adhere to a singular backbone, giving the music both a driving and lurching quality. Rarely are bands of such a chaotic sound able to move with such unification.

Despite the timeless quality of the instrumentation, vocalist Lucius Fairchild steals the show on several spots on the album. In a loose style matching the band's instrumentation, Fairchild alternates between hardcore screaming, sing-talking and monologuing. What Fairchild seems to realize in contrast to many of his contemporaries is the effectiveness of dynamic. When he screams, he really means it, which makes the impact of his wail that much stronger when compared to when he's quiet.

As Git Some expand their sound (and shed the ghost of Planes Mistaken for Stars that hounds them) they seem to become increasingly aware of the classics which informed their earlier work. But, instead of imitation, Git Some seem to understand music on the level of impulse and avoid the academic aspects of what makes hardcore be hardcore. Their control might be loose, but it's absolute.