Labels: La Vida Es Un Mus – Toxic State
Review by: Alex Deller
Initially wrote this lot off for sounding far too studious and in hock to their influences, but this is actually alright. Since I last heard them the 80s UK bedsit aesthetic has got a lot messier, turning the gothy punk rock nervous and echo-smudged to the point that things sound like some weird mix of mid-80s Fall, Part 1 and that Murder City Devils 10″. The lyric sheet lets them down a bit, because besides the fun stuff about “pleading white apes in child coffins” there’s all this other goofy, cod satanic schtick that makes me roll my eyes and wonder if we were really that overdue another Ink & Dagger. Still, at least the words are pretty much obliterated by the overabundance of echo, meaning you can blot out all the magic-with-a-k-on-the-end silliness and do your best to just enjoy the velvet-draped racket as a standalone.