Evidence - LP

For ten years Spike Fuck has existed more as a messy myth than an artist;sporadic works forever poised on the precipice of triumph, rumours of deathor insanity and so on. Spike's mission is to distill the sacred and profane,balancing the melancholy and humour of life; to be alive is to be trauma-tised. Luckily, the devotion to his music persevered, somewhat bolstered byhis inconsistency and inaccessibility. This inexplicable goodwill towards hisartistry is perhaps partly due to Spike's timeless, pained and confessionallyricism, though more pointedly, the fragility of a life mired in addiction.His being or works does not question the virtue of life, but simply addressesthe numb, pragmatic and far more immediate matter of surviving anotherday, an almost ineffable sentiment only justified by his distinct, poetic auda-ciousness. Free from his arresting thoughts, evidence, the long anticipateddebut album, is a brazen proof of life statement. Convicted by the outlandishidea of evidencing a 'you had to be there' mentality, the record honours thepresence in body, a record to be felt, never to be rationalized.The material on evidence touches on elements of new wave, glam, soul anddoo-wop, citing Pere Ubu, New York Dolls, The Temptations and BettyeSwan as key influences. Melodically it emits the energy of a down-and-outCBGBs band who cashes in by recording a lucrative Christmas album. Spikefrequently uses sonic and lyrical juxtapositions to perform comic twists ofsincerity, a reflection of society's obsession with 'getting a rise'. On Boredto Death, a scuzzy, laidback and soulful tune, paired with morbid ragebaitlyrics that payoff as a stand up joke when I look up at the sun it makes meso happy cause I know one day it's gonna kill me, and it'll kill you too! Leadsingle All By Myself carries on in this fashion; with feelgood, family-friend-ly punk doo-wop production, Spike is misleading on if his joy comes fromthe pride in solitude, or from loneliness and a 'give me everything' mentalityin the act of shooting heroin. The vocal performances oscillate between be-ing blasé, vulnerable and manic; Sweet Release meets power-ballad criteriasolely due to Spike's deteriorating cries into the void, the jittery delivery onGetting Sober embodies religious fanaticism while sounding like a popsong written by Suicide for a David Lynch film.evidence is an album that lives outside the limits of discourse; it's purpose iseponymous and self-evident. It is what it is, and is subject to interpretation.There is no point in interrogating attachments, virtue or value. The onlyrightful way to live is to be.