Album review: We Insist! – The Babel Inside Was Terrible

There is something truly literal about the title that French post-prog jazz-influenced outfit We Insist! have given themselves. From the offset, “Deja Vu” cuts across the chest; a straight one-two of pounding and annihilation. At first, it all seems slightly incoherent, almost jarring: it takes its time, but eventually finds its peak in its obtuse sincerity. The stream-of-consciousness style is something that I find incredibly endearing, especially when it breaks and elicits the rebel yell of “Is this what you call a déjà vu?”. Immediately the skin across this beaten abdomen is broken; the prize-fighter continues.

But France has always been a fighter, hasn’t it? Not in the most conventional sense, not in any truly primal consistency, but as a fighter of the mind. The backwards-jazz that ends the first track on The Babel Inside Was Terrible harks back to this tradition, and there is something wholly progressive about this take on the national image, however frightening. “Oakleaves” is a penetrable manifesto of claustrophobic paranoia. It thrashes around like At The Drive-In, but has a reason to do so. It acts as if an unsure cry – perhaps for freedom – is driving it, but I doubt even ‘it’ (as in, the message) is even aware ‘it’ exists. “Efficiency and Bad Habits” borders on drunken hysterics; a dirty night in a place you’re glad you’ve never been to. Etching its way to an end, possibly uncertain there is one until the deafness halts and we are left with “The Maze” and delicate Tool-inspired opening; tense, as if to make you expect the fireworks. You know it is coming.

As the track-listing trickles through its destined timeline it is clear that the knockout has been and gone. I’ll be honest and say that the lyrical delivery is muddied somewhat – but I suspect that it will never hamper my enjoyment of the music which has, by this point, turned into a komodo-headed serpent, tearing and ripping. At the crux of “Custom Device” and its Origin of Symmetry-era Muse-styled opening, it is apparent that the prize-fighter has passed through its own metamorphosis into a hideous beast. “Thoughtful Anatomy” cleverly continues to instil this notion. The moments of silence between tracks are unsettling, as if there was a conspiracy not to weld the noise together in order to create desperation within the gaps.

“Dead Dog”, with its feral animosity and driven vocals, becomes the typical We Insist! track on this truly horrifying album. Like Cronenberg’s fierce body horror, it tears through the Freudian landscape of the sub-conscious and comes out the other side with the bloodied head of its opponent in its fist. If ever the phrase “be afraid” was used, never more so accurately could it be used than during the carousel synth opening of “Ancient Follies”, a piece where the lyrical and vocal prowess is exploited to conjure images of hate and guilt. Sometimes sickly, sometimes disturbing, The Babel Inside Was Terrible never, ever fails to achieve a reaction from its listener. It refuses to beg, however: it demands, and you are helpless before its needs.