Cindy Lee
Act of Tenderness
[CCQSK]
It’s fitting that this skewed, claustrophobic, distinctly Lynchian take on classic pop songs run through an industrial meat grinder was first revealed to the public via a suitably distressing Geocities site consisting of a Dropbox link surrounded by a collage of jarring images of PVC bodysuits and blood cascading from the eyes of Asian schoolgirls.
The new project from former Women front man Patrick Flegel, Cindy Lee puts the propulsive post-punk side of his previous band (still being showcased, with a great deal of success, by his brother Matt in Viet Cong) to one side in favour of exploring the boundless rewards that come from treading the line between tender torch songs and gut-churningly abrasive sonic assaults that made Women so captivating in their pomp.
Act of Tenderness as a record feels like but a part of a wider-reaching art project, with the shot of two disconcertingly louche masked figures emblazoned on the cover, or the stark images of fetishised suffering that accompany the release playing as vital a part in overall context as the piercing feedback that characterises a number of the tracks on here. Genuinely upsetting in the best possible sense, this might just be the ideal late Christmas gift for the masochist shut-in in your life.
Words: Danny Wilson
Like this? Try these:
Women – Public Strain
Les Rallizes Dénudés – Heavier than a Death in the Family
The Velvet Underground – White Light/White Heat
