Delivered with characteristic klang and echoed distortion, Born Again Revisited sees tri-cornered Columbus pop constructivists Times New Viking notch up their fourth studiously lo-fidelity album in as many years.
Without a care for the convention of production values and (let’s be honest) rather stupidly delivering the album as a master tape on VHS, it’s a difficult juggling act to hold the core of their songs in your head whilst the maddening frisson of scrapes and reverb whirl hectically in the background. On the plus side most tracks are kept to around two minute mark in case your patience begins to ebb.
Essentially this is another installment of clever-dumb noisy rock ‘n’ roll tunes passing by so quickly you shouldn’t care about titles but ‘No Time, No Hope’ and ‘Martin Luther King Day’ manage to stick their head above the clamour long enough for particular attention.
Despite the DIY, arch-art they scatter over their musical output it’s a real surprise to find on repeated listens the familiar ghosts of early Pavement and Guided By Voices emitting from the tinny sound and before long the ennui turns to vigour as TNV's obvious sense of joy grips you as infectiously as swine flu.
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