Hans Werksman – Here Comes the Flood (herecomestheflood.com), 28/08/2020
HCTF Best of 2020: # 17 / 20
Rambling noisy art-punk goodness from Amsterdam
Amsterdam based art-punk band Labasheeda are back with a new album after a 5 year pause. Status Seeking is an eclectic, yet coherent set of songs that goes through hills and valleys (sometimes even within the space a single song). There are not that many bands in The Netherlands that feature a violin or even a viola, but it is a safe bet that they are familiar with Soviet Sex and Hospital Bombers (engineer Jan Schenk was in it back in the day).
Raw tenderness is captured in a hectic, but melodic, maze of music. Lead singer Saskia van der Giessen glides up and down the scales, improvising her parts as the band keeps throwing curve balls, with guitarist Arne Wolfswinkel acting as both Thurston Moore and Joey Santiago. Fans of the Au Pairs, Siouxsie and the Banshees, and the Sugarcubes can pick this up before hearing a single note.