aaamusic | On 23, Oct 2011

A flexidisc release? These things have seen a vague twitch of zombified life as medium du jour amongst bands who feel they need to make a statement that vinyl can no longer make: not so much an “I am here with historic contributions and gravitas and an awkward-to-fileshare format” as “I am just really fucking awkward”. And so it is with The Coathangers, with emphasis on any and all swear words. This AA-side single release is by no means your band of rock chicks. This is L7 via the internet. Angry, skittering rhythms, guitars that sound like Enrico Morricone’s death throes played bavkwards on a goth club’s knackered tape cassette deck, and a jagged punky attitude. Think X Ray Specs sharing a beer-drenched moshpit with Killing Joke while new post-punk blood The Gaa Gaa’s play an all-nighter, and you’re there. On ‘Hurricane’, Rasping vocals bark out a bile-drenched tirade while psychopathic playground-style gang chants back up the chorus, and a woozy guitar assault forever lurches between the sparse metallic post punk of Killing Joke’s debut LP, while the rest feels like the descendent of Crass’ ‘Penis Envy’ backed up with a debt to riot grrl.

‘Johnny’ is perhaps the more straight-up punk of the two, although that’s not to call it particularly comforting of familiar with a queasy sliding off-kilter, um, melody(?) in the riff sections and some chilling group vocals in a similar vein to the chorus in ‘Hurricane’, but this suddenly with little warning with explode from horror-movie-discord piano tinkling into savage frenzied shouting that, if it weren’t so lo-fi, I would hail as the scariest rock song of 2011.

 

I suppose what has to be said is that The Cathangers aren’t 100% original. Yes, the combination overall isn’t too well-trodden, but the influences are clear as the patches on a battle-scarred leather jacket. That said, if you have the capabilities of dealing with flexidiscs or downloads, these guys, although transparent, are good, and the sheer energy that flies out from these two recordings is as unavoidable as I’m sure stepping in something you might not want to would be at the end of an impressive punk show.

 

Katie H-Halinski