A thinly disguised iteration of the New York post-punk band Bodega fronted by songwriters Ben Hozie and Nikki Belfiglio, the same quintet go full punk and hardcore on this articulately angry, pacy, attention-grabbing burst of eight, raucous yet catchy and also clever songs in just 18 minutes, satirically pulling no punches about society’s various ills. It’s a powerful breakneck-speed distillation of the Bodega ethos and spirit in full-fierce punk mode, with guitar sounds, bass and drumming variously reminiscent of Ramones to Buzzcocks to Dead Kennedys, Black Flag to McClusky, commenting on the effects of social control and media and branding and corporations. Like a series of nails being precisely, remorselessly and intelligently hammered, and Hozie and Belfiglio taking turns as shouty vocal lead, standouts include Quantify (“Everything you see it must be rated / Everything you think is aggregated / Resources will all be allocated Minds that disagree can be persuaded / Tell me how would rate yr friendships? / How do you rate yr life?”); the excellent title track with a typographical font metaphor (“All that you see / All that you are / Like the dirt hills that dot Charleroi / All that you breathe / All that you see Like the costume that wears / A Helvetica grade / It’s all man made / To rot in Helvetica graves”); Comatose Chameleon, Network, and Gestation Crate (“A new form of barbarity / Concentration camps / For snacks after my therapy / Pain is so unique/ And that’s not just my vanity I’m top of the food chain / That came from Christianity.” Take no shit. Bring the noise. Out on Chrysalis Records.
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