Reviews

Harbinger Sound

Girls in Synthesis Now Here’s an Echo From Your Future LP

Intense and properly humourless power trio delivering ripping post-punk with a big sound. The upfront vocals make everything sound like an emergency and there’s a lot of inventive interplay between vocals and instruments. The opening tune “Arterial Movements” sets the parameters: high energy, distinct bass, and guitar that at times pierces, at other times drones, and other times expands into a sick echo. GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS are working in dangerous territory for a UK band owing a debt to GANG OF FOUR. So much of that sound was run into the ground in the Bush-era by bands like the RAPTURE and the ROGERS SISTERS. This reviewer is pleased to report that GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS do not fall into any such sonic cliches. I like how the slow grind of “Human Frailty” resolves into the lopsided, atonal sonic nightmare. They sound like they would be killer live.

Girls in Synthesis Shift in State 12″

As a follow-up to their debut LP Now Here’s An Echo From Your Future, this mini-album is another GIRLS IN SYNTHESIS release of which the hardcopy is already sold out! Sticking true to super-limited pressings, this UK DIY band delivers with lots of ambient noise and grit—they’re pissed, and you better not get in the way, as in their closer track, “Don’t try!”

Pisse Pisse LP

This Berlin gruppe is all over the map on this album. From minimalist synth punk to straight-ahead angry anarcho-punk; from the extremes of near powerviolence-level thrash (as demonstrated on “Angehem Straff”) to the doo-wop COUNTRY TEASERS/FAT WHITE FAMILY disturbed pop dirge of “Zu Viel Speed.” The amazing thing is, it all works! For all the disparate styles, the album retains a consistently wry yet bleak outlook throughout. It’s rare for cold detachment to possess this much personality.