Album Review: Girls In Synthesis - "Now Here's An Echo From Your Future"

 

Post-punk seems to have been a rich source of inspiration for up and coming bands ever since the likes of the Rapture and Franz Ferdinand broke on to the scene nearly two decades ago. However, Girls In Synthesis are a band who take it to a much angrier level. Following a number of EP's, Now Here's An Echo From Your Future is their debut album and it sounds like a much more venomous version of Idles who've turned their anger from inwards at the communities that spawned them to the world as a whole.

Opener Arterial Movements sounds like an utterly rabid version of PIL with its screamed chant of "I tried it once, I won't try it again" and the anger doesn't really let up from thereon in as the likes of Pressure and They're Not Listening see GIS railing with white hot fury against the ignorant scumbags in government. Howling balefully against media lies (The Images Agree) and the lack of individuality in modern society (Scrapped) among other things, this album is anything but easy listening but there's something very cathartic in the sheer anger, frustration and despair in here that's difficult to ignore.

From the almost Sabbath heavy riffs of Human Frailty through the brutal drone of the five-minute Set Up To Fail to the way that Coming Up For Air almost collapses under the weight of its own ferociousness into a wall of feedback at the end to the sheer panic rush of Cause For Concern with its repeated scream of "WE CAN'T GO ON THIS WAY!", Now Here's An Echo From Your Future grabs you by the throat from the off and refuses to let you go. By the time the pummelling Tirades of Hate And Fear brings things to a close, you may find yourself needing to take off your headphones and going out for a gasp of fresh air.

A more consistent Idles? Fontaines DC with actual tunes? Crass given a 2020 makeover? Nah, let's just settle for one of the best new bands I've heard so far this year. This definitely comes recommended. You can stream or download from the Girls in Synthesis Bandcamp page.

NITE SONGS RATING: 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑 (9/10)

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