As the guitars got darker and the drums and bass became more menacing and the tempo slowed ever so slightly, the band up on stage could glare down at onlookers with a refocused mindset and demand an unfaltering attentiveness. After all, punk was a scene - not unlike today's - where the noise and the image and the directionless energy often overpowered the impact of the music and made it difficult for the listener to comprehend the deeper meaning. There's no mystery in the world why Savages has chosen to use the dark post-punk of the late 70s as the musical platform for their pathos. And for all this, Savages will undoubtedly be one of the biggest new names of the year. But the fact that Savages also host a brutal post-punk sound straight out of 1979 and some of the best instrumentation in recent years proves that Silence Yourself is more than just an idea - it's a cleansing wave of mutilation that could turn the scene on its head. The thing is about Savages, all of the above would be almost enough to have us sold on the record regardless of its sound. Silence Yourself is all about recomposition. Here, as their mantra says, "perhaps we would start hearing the distant rhythm of an angry young tune - and recompose ourselves". Savages is exactly what the indie scene needs right now: a step away from the shiny promotional limelight of the social network frenzy and a quiet step into isolation. It makes sense too - their lyrical imagery strives to provoke the human mind into being something it already is, buried deep down inside, under layers and layers of media brainwash. Savages lead singer Jehnny Beth has mentioned that the band's name is inspired by the classic books of societal degradation, like Lord of the Flies. But when all is stripped away, and the comfortable gaul of affluence is taken from us, these things all disappear with it. The Stepford versions of our lives on social networks, the constant conversational one-upping that we can't live five seconds without - it's all noise. Furthermore, with so much information at our fingertips, much of our ability to truly care or have real opinions has been replaced by a wanton desire to take part in everything and claim everything as our own. In the post-Internet age, it is near impossible not to constantly be distracted by the noise and the flickering light of media saturation and LED deception. It serves as both a synopsis for the record and a conceptual becoming. There is a short monologue printed on the front cover of the Savages debut LP Silence Yourself.
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