While a number of the songs here are delightfully speedy and efficient, when the band sprawls out-as on the title track and the seething closer “Rebuilding”-they lose none of that essential message. What vocalist Chris Dodd and crew are saying so eloquently is that it is not, it can always be fought, it can always be taken down. With lyrics that specifically and poetically reference the living conditions in their hometown of Stevenage, just north of London, as well as being broadly applicable to capitalist atomization and the decay characteristic of policies of austerity and privatization across the world, this is eminently relevant music that heaves with queasy fury against a deeply stratified and violent world in which everyday evil is presented as inevitable. Human Capital, their latest LP, sounds dynamic and menacing, too, a far cry from the crowded high end of a lot of contemporary punk recordings. They’re not breaking new ground-they draw on a number of well-loved influences, from anarcho-punk to noise rock-but they’re doing it their way, with energy that feels forthright and sincere. In these days, when so much new punk is backwards-looking (perhaps due to the incredible wealth of previously hard-to-find historical recordings we have access to at this point-endless inspiration to be mined), it’s especially exciting to hear bands that feel as fresh as Bad Breeding continually does. This is, as expected, heady and rich work, as rewarding as it is challenging-music to get lost in that opens up new paths on every listen. “Buul Okelyo,” in some ways its complement and foil, adds microtonal elements to the heaviest kicks around for a clattering sound field in which the layered rhythms almost feel like they’re playing hide-and-seek with one another. This yields enervating, unrelenting tracks like centerpiece “Buul a’Nyich,” which pulses with the most industrial and the most surreal aspects of Detroit techno. The liner notes indicate a desire to resist the depth of field so prized by Western production, pushing sonic elements onto the same plane to heighten the intensity of the music. Raw Space, Authentically Plastic’s debut LP, works with driving polymeters and a tense balance between space and claustrophobia to sharply counter the idea of an easily digestible East African techno produced for consumption by the West. Kampala, Uganda DJ, producer, theorist, visual artist, and drag queen Authentically Plastic is an incredibly vital multidisciplinary artist, a key member of the ANTI-MASS Collective ( alongside Nsasi and Turkana), who throw radical queer events against a backdrop of local homophobic and transphobic repression. Listening to standouts like “Tidal Lullaby” and “Chimera,” with their thrilling tempo feints, tempestuous mood shifts, crisp percussion, and potent guitar melodies, it’s easy to see why so many fans have fallen under Asunojokei’s spell. A blackened post-hardcore marvel fleshed out with screamo vocals, shoegaze textures, and dance-punk choruses (not to mention one of the most eye-catching covers of 2022), the record cascaded in popularity among online music circles overnight its current Rate Your Music average, based on 1500 reviews penned over the two months, ranks among the top 30 releases of the year so far, to say nothing of its glowing reception on this very site. Pre-order buy pre-order buy you own this wishlist in wishlist go to album go to track go to album go to trackĪfter nearly a decade together, heavy Tokyo band Asunojokei finally landed a long-overdue global breakthrough with their sophomore album, アイランド (Island).
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