Water Damage: In E

With their third album in as many years, the new music orbit wouldn’t be the same without Water Damage in it.

The Austin, Texas ensemble have fast developed a reputation for just getting in the studio and getting shit done. Raw, anxious energy committed to tape, Water Damage dispense motorik, long-form psychedelia that spits and crackles, bending into new shapes and sizes every time you listen. It makes them one of the most exciting experimental concerns walking the face of this god forsaken earth.

Last year’s excellent and widely underappreciated 2 Songs contained the band’s most hypnotically beautiful moment captured within the studio walls (Fuck That : Reel 13), and while Water Damage continue their crusade down the perilous paths from 2022’s Repeater, the collective of Mari Maurice, Thor Harris, Jonathan Horne, Nate Cross, George Dishner, Travis Austin, Mike Kanin, Greg and Jeff Piwonka are now joined by Lonnie “Palmtree” Slack for their return in 2024 with In E.

A-Sun Amissa: Ruins Era

Once again, the band delivers militant noise with dead-eyed proficiency, and it all starts with Reel E. Here, Water Damage take kraut-rock through the tall grass that leads to abandoned outhouses. Think back to when Faust signed for Virgin before The Faust Tapes, taking the piss out of Richard Branson in the process. Bedraggled hippies left to their own devices in the German countryside, spending their days fucking off recording sessions in favour drinking and smoking with farmers. This has that vibe. Well, almost…

At over 20 minutes, this composition doesn’t build, it just maintains its blistering intensity from the first note. With sweltering force, it’s almost too much to bear, as Harris leads the charge in what is instrument-wielding avant-folk that’s like being guided through a chainsaw. 

Reel EE inflicts similar harm, although with building rhythmic percussion, it leads into a cacophony of brass and bruising bass lines. Heaving, buzz-saw sonics conceived from the heart of a scrap metal yard, rendering Water Damage as the mongrel offspring of Einstürzende Neubauten from their more debaucherous years.

Reel EEE sees the band take it down a notch in what is a cascading, ceremonial improvisation through the lens of punk. It’s a track where you can almost smell incense, but not in a hippified way. Water Damage are far too direct and forceful for any middle class ‘find yourself’ retreats in California. No, this is trance-like noise that crushes like a vise.

BIG|BRAVE: A Chaos of Flowers

Changing their approach, Water Damage lose themselves in their own way with Ladybird. A Shit & Shine cover that features Craig Clouse himself on vocals, Water Damage weave the psychedelic S & S patchwork with new thread in what is acidic, droning garage rock. If Robert Hampson merged the worlds of Loop and Main, then something like this would have been the through line. A stinking brawl through a Texas dust storm, indeed.

Not that anyone needed confirmation, but Ladybird maintains Water Damage’s punk spirit, adding weight to an album that showcases a band at their extreme best. Fusing together punk and psychedelic purity, the compositions Water Damage produce on In E swell with spirit and melt the mind. There are no limits with this band, and that’s why they are one of the most essential out there today.

In E is out now via 12XU. Purchase from Bandcamp.