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Umbrella Brigade
Ex Nihilo

Rule Six Records

Posted: Friday, July 18, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Features Editor

Umbrella Brigade is the new outing of Whitey f. Sterling, best known for his work in cult New York City punk act Stiffs, Inc. Known as much for their "post-Orwellian Victorian" aesthetic as for their moody brand of '70s style punk rock, Stiffs, Inc. would go on to influence such groups as My Chemical Romance, whose lead singer, Gerard Way, cited them as the template for his own platinum-selling act. With Umbrella Brigade, Sterling retains his Victorian punk aesthetic - derby hat, vintage spectacles and all - but moves in a drastically different musical direction, more Legendary Pink Dots than The Damned. Drawing on avant-garde electronic artists ranging from Fad Gadget's Frank Tovey to classical composer Philip Glass, he displays a clear love of gritty analog synthesizers, with bouncing pop melodies on "The Lessen" and psychedelic space ambient harmonies on "A Room in Alone" serving as a perfect backdrop for his whimsical lyrical meanderings. Umbrella Brigade is no less a band for its preponderance of programmed sequences, however; the vintage electronics are merely one aspect of a multi-layered sound that also includes everything from strummed guitars to plucked violins on "Unsown," not to mention performances by Corey Gorey, Julia Ghoulia, and D.W. Friend of fellow New York City band The Brides and Jeremy Alisauskas and Angel Lorelei of Autodrone. Though Sterling's mixture of the brooding and the fanciful gives Ex Nihilo an undeniable cohesiveness, there's no shortage of diversity in sound or mood here. "Return" is contemplative, almost mystical, with Gaelic chanting interwoven with meditations on mortality and delivered over stately organs and a pulsing dance beat. "Artful Dodging" starts off as stark electro-pop, but turns into something far more rich and graceful as guitars and female backing harmonies fill out the chorus. "Penguin Stepping" sees Sterling fully embracing his sense of weirdness on a track that's both evocative and startlingly violent, at least for a song about penguins, while "Misery's Done" is an appealing juxtaposition of wistful keyboards and stomping industrial beats. Darkly eclectic, almost psychedelic, Umbrella Brigade's debut is decidedly unique, turning the basic underpinnings of synthpop upside down and using the genre's skeletal remains as the foundation for something compellingly strange. There are dance beats here, yes, but no easy club tracks; Ex Nihilo pursues its own eccentricity with a single-minded obsession that would seem contrived if not for the immense talent on display. A work of fractured genius, Umbrella Brigade's will be highly appreciated, if not entirely understood, by true connoisseurs of pop music's quirky fringe territories.