Speaking to The Guardian in 2018, the band’s drummer, vocalist, chief lyricist and founding member Zach Choy said that the central premise behind Crack Cloud had been “fundamentally about recovery and taking care of your mental health.”
Initially in Calgary, Alberta a few years earlier and then the city of Vancouver in the neighbouring state of British Columbia, Crack Cloud had been assembled from a community of recovering addicts and individuals working with mental health patients and those with substance misuse problems.
This ever-evolving, often sprawling musical and multimedia collective released two albums – Pain Olympics (2020) and Tough Baby (2022) – both of which are raw, striking exercises in post-punk deconstruction accompanied both on and off stage by wildly expressive artwork and visualisers.
Now Crack Cloud appear before us in a suitably slimmed down form of six group members and with a recently released third album. Red Mile is that record and it also embraces some similarly significant changes as Crack Cloud further soften the edges on their earlier sonic serration, replacing it with a heightened pop empathy and a greater collective sense of being.
Crack Cloud are here on this side of the Atlantic Ocean in support of Red Mile on what is the second date of the UK and Ireland leg of the tour. With its strong commitment to inclusivity and huge community spirit, the Brudenell is the perfect setting in which to immerse yourself in the Crack Cloud experience.
Rather fittingly they open their set with ‘Crack of Life’, the first track from Red Mile. “Come all ye join us. Let’s all have some fun. From microbe to the matrix. We’ll outlive our sun.” With its strong emphasis upon dealing positively with adversity, moving forwards, and raising personal morale, the song is almost the modern equivalent of ‘Pack Up Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag’, albeit with a far spikier rock’n’roll edge.
‘Red Kite’, the soaraway lead single from the new album, arrives early doors imbued with resilience, positivity and certain melodic cues derived from The Clash. As Zach Choy begins to sound eerily like a reincarnation of Joe Strummer it marks yet another staging post on their shared road to recovery. This music is uplifting in the extreme.
As if to prove they are not constrained by the parameters of punk, post-punk or any other variants thereof, Crack Cloud show they can move just as easily into the spheres of jazz, funk, and even the avant-garde as Bryce Cloghesy blasts out some pretty cosmic grooves on his saxophone. Even a bust guitar string is not going to stop these dudes in their tracks for long. ‘Lost on the Red Mile’ is positively transcendental.
Crack Cloud initially dispense with the formality of leaving the stage and then returning shortly thereafter for an encore by just tearing straight into ‘Costly Engineered Illusion’ from the Tough Baby album. But such is the clamour for them to then reappear they happily do so by going back almost to where it all started with an incendiary reading of their very early release ‘Time Unsubsidized.’ It was as if the circle was unbroken. Recovery is always ongoing but for tonight at least it feels complete and by being so Zach Choy’s stated premise from years ago somehow seems fulfilled.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos of Crack Cloud at Brudenell Social Club
