Article by Marzia Picciano
I look in amazement at a mountain of shit.
These are the first words of Constant Noiseopening track of the album of the same name by Benefits, the duo composed of the vocalist Kingsley Hall and the composer Robbie Mayor, and they are the first to be uttered by them at the beginning of their concert inArch Beauty last week, February 1st. Concert for “a few close friends”, we will say, in the Palestra Visconti, after a particularly powerful date at 30Ants of Rome – but this is not the point.
I arrive after a three-hour drive back from Veneto and neither to me nor to Kingsley Hall could matter less, I personally was at the end of a devastating week, or rather of a January that lasted a year (at New Year's Eve we systematically forget that January awaits us), anything goes and it's perfectly fine to get lost in a show like the one that the Benefits know how to do, very well.
Constant Noise it is a record that delves into the post punk tradition peppered with spoken word that is only superficially similar to the model Arab Strap: polemical yet full of grace, it delves into the uncertain nebula that we carry inside us, and which is a bit a product of what we see, eat, inhale, exhale. Kingsley Hall he said he wanted to put into words and songs what he thinks of his country following a series of wicked choices (and here it would make sense to highlight how almost all post punk bands made in the UK has found in Brexit an important source of political revival) and in the face of the emergence of even more wicked positions in a broad, global sense.
They had already done it, he and Major on the first album Nails (and the breakthrough piece, Malboro Hundreds), which emerged post-pandemic almost silently and actually brought the two to Glastonbury in 2023; with Constant Noise a new technical-interpretative key is found in deep electronics, or rather: industrial electronics becomes the means to enter even deeper into the human stain, or rather, the human wound. Not surprisingly, it ends with Underworld and the words of Suicide.
Places like the Visconti Gym can only amplify the sense of Orwellian disorientation that the harangue of Halle's powerful and charming voice manages to create in the listener, and be careful: we are faced with a performer not so much of theatrical standing, but of his own party, of his own creed. If there is something that I immediately believe in as I see him getting more and more into the role, it is that he really couldn't care less if, as he says, he finds himself performing in front of a full or half-empty room. What he must do, the sermon, is a necessary and urgent instinct. And that's mesmerizing.
Hearing him start with that slow, yet firm, sentence, well, it made me realize I had to listen. It brought us focus. Instead of closing with silence (as per the recording), the console floods the room, and us, with noise. To then move on to Land Of The Tyrantsamong the most intense tracks of the entire album (the second is Relentlesswho sees the collaboration, as a surprise? Of Pete Doherty), also thanks to a base of clubbling synth bass that projects us into our very personal Trainspotting moment – and complete with a more or less deliberate reference to one of Radiohead's masterpieces and intrinsically political album.
For a moment Hall becomes, in my eyes, Michael Fassbender with Frank's cardboard head, the same low power in his voice, imbued with the crazy but controlled anger of any preacher à la Tyler Durden. He is a physical, heavy presence. Beauty's sermon was serious, intense, an attempt to infuse words intravenously, a necessary stance.
I wasn't ready for this either, but then again, how many times are we really called to take not so much awareness as an active position on everything? How many times do we hide behind the finger of security, of what we know, of the song we already know? How many times do we really get 'shaken', who do we really give a chance to?
In a world that seeks wonder and struggles to see the new because we are all different, but not really to understand it, we no longer allow ourselves the possibility of finding ourselves making mistakes, of discovering that it was actually better than we thought, taking risks. Maybe at the end of the week you're not dying to activate your brain, not even with the slightest effort – at most we can remember to say “Free Palestine”, Major did it, he even wrote it on our shirt. But then how much do we get to the bottom of the matter, how much do we really want to go down the rabbit hole?
Here you are, Constant Noise it does nothing but this, played live as well, no matter how many of you there are, it only serves to take you into a flow of words and trance in search of the light at the end of the tunnel. By containing our apocalyptic perceptions in a scathing monologue, and yes, we can understand everything, even if we are talking about a different country, even if we are now in an Olympic climate and we are huddled behind a flag. On May 2nd they play in Catania at the Zö. Do yourself a favor: give yourself a chance.
BENEFITS – The lineup of the Milan concert
Constant Noise
Land of the Tyrants
Warhorse
The Victory Lap
Lies and Fear
Missiles
Blame
Divide
Dancing on the Tables
Burnt Out Family Home
Flags
Marlboro Hundreds
Born Slippy
Daniel D`Amico for SANREMO.FM
