Labels: Static Shock
Review by: Alex Deller
I have been puzzling for some time as to just what it is connecting with the cop’s face on the cover of this record by the London hardcore band NO. It has been sitting here, facing me, propped up against a big pile of LPs in my living room and I’ve spent countless meals, dinner on lap, gazing at the stark monochrome sleeve and trying to figure it out. Is it a death ray? A poorly-rendered two-by-four? A paint scraper? A two-dimensional witches’ hat? I just don’t know. Less baffling, though, is the music. It’s fucking great. It’s the kind of barely-time-to-breathe shit that the word ‘careening’ seems to have been invented for. It’s fast, choppy and utterly frenetic, the vocals disbelieving and the trebly guitars imbued with the kind of lean, wiry muscularity that you’d be a mug to bet against in any kind of sonic dust-up. It’s very, very good indeed, and if you like Void, Die Kreuzen, early COC or good hardcore in general then you need to be getting on this right now.