2k Treasures, a series revisiting some of the decade's overlooked albums, begins today with a look back at Q and Not U's 2002 album 'Different Damages.'
It’s easy to forget, given how inert and irrelevant the label grew over the last several years, but Dischord Records was still a force at the start of the decade. Fugazi was still going strong, touring behind their finest album yet, The Argument, and two thrilling young bands in particular pushed the label’s trademark post-hardcore in innovative new directions. Black Eyes was the edgier and more avant-garde of these two bands; Q and Not U was the more inclusive, the band with the most hopes for introducing the label to a new audience thanks to their 2000 debut No Kill No Beep Beep, which tempered jagged, D.C. punk with warped, re-purposed funk riffs.
That debut album made it look too easy, and nobody would have blamed the band for recording a couple more like it, then cashing in on the impending demand for punk bands whose shows played out like dance parties. The 2002 departure of bassist Matthew Borlik, however, opened up more exciting possibilities. Instead of recruiting another bassist, the band continued as a three-piece, with each member relishing their increased workload. Their concerts took on an air of performance art, as guitarists Chris Richards and Harris Klahr frantically swapped instruments mid-song and drummer John Davis grew an extra set of arms trying to maintain their tricky rhythms.
Different Damage is the product of this transitional period for the band, capturing both the “how will they pull this off?” spectacle of those shows and the band’s new sense of exploration. Each song introduces a different mood and texture from the last, and the mix is kept sparse to accentuate each shift in rhythm and instrumentation. The bass is absent for long periods, but when it reappears it’s fierce and purposeful, dominating the mix. The record is rich with lovely, polyrhythmic allusions to jazz, funk and dub, but there’s always the threat of a vicious, straight-for-the-kill punk song around the corner. It’s an album of contrasts, right down to the good-cop/bad-cop routine of its duel vocalists. Richards sings in the same reassuringly familiar pop-punk whine used by dozens of singers in more traditional bands, while Klahr prefers a wild, raw-throated bark. They alternate singing at random intervals, creating an unpredictable cycle of tension, build up and release.
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Different Damage is a strange, little record, a 36-minute sound collage bound together by Davis ’ tireless percussion and manipulated analogue tape, but there’s a deliberate logic behind its sequencing. While each of its short, capricious songs makes a bold statement on its own, they work even better as a whole. Seldom has a punk record been saturated with so many ideas, surprises and pay offs. On Different Damage, Q and Not U stumbled upon some previously untapped golden ratio of soft and loud, beauty and spazz. In the seven years since its release, that formula has yet to be duplicated. Mostly likely it can’t be.
