Hair Police – Constantly Terrified

I am not as impressed by the Hair Police’s ‘Constantly Terrified’ as the rest of the noise fan base seems to be. To start with, there are only four tracks on the album, albeit extended tracks. Second, the vocals are delivered in a screechy and whining manner and are nearly constant over the four tracks (imagine the cries of a retarded baby in severe pain). The effect is maddening.

The Hair Police have been linked with comparable act Wolf Eyes, and share a mutual influence from the likes of pioneering noise rockers Sonic Youth (who the band has opened for and briefly toured with- No Fun fest in Brooklyn, and Lolapalooza 2004). But on “Constantly Terrified”, Hair Police seems driven more by rockless doodling and a degenerate form of jazz.

Based on what’s presented here, there’s no question that the band is capable of producing some hallucinatory and densely mangled atmospheres. But there is a great deal of room on this album for something more inventive and more terrifying.

artist: Hair Police
label: Trouble Man Unlimited
details: cd, 4 tracks, 38 minutes, 2005 [TMU148]