Spent a lot of time with these tracks over the past few months, and I don’t know as I’m the better for it. Honestly, I feel like all the snide, harsh hectoring has probably chipped away parts of my psyche that I’ll never reclaim.
Tube Alloys play post-punk, whatever that means anymore. You can definitely hear Wire and Swell Maps in here, but the archness and intelligence of those bands has been shot through with something bleaker, meaner and borderline violent. The teeth-baring sneers make me think of Rudimentary Peni, and there are elements of the vitriolic clang that makes me think of the overlooked, underappreciated Kim Phuc – their first 7” in particular.
There’s a cold and functional gleam to it, like medical equipment. It’s also detached and blackly comedic in a way that begs terms like ‘Cronenbergian’ or ‘Ballardian’ be used.
For all its scratchy tunefulness, the lung-tightening bitterness is palpable. This makes ‘Magnetic Point’ one of those rare, exhausting records that seems to linger on – and under – your skin long after the music stops. Whether or not that’s necessarily a good thing will largely depend on your physical health and overall state of mind, but I do recommend you at least try it.