Pinch Points : "Process"

 

This Australian punk bands, makes fun of a post-covid isolation culture that their generation in many ways embrace. But punk is supposed to be about giving the middle finger to the system, it is going to take more than one song to see what side they fall on when it comes to the system. The post -punk tag gets thrown around their Bandcamp page, but they are less tension and moody and more upbeat.  "Stock It" tends to follow the path the created for themselves on the first song. There is a little more rock n roll vibe to how the guitar is handled/. "Copper" is less impressive even with the gang vocals.  

"Am I Okay" jangles on with a similar feel to the frantic formula that seemed to be embedded in what they do. This formula begins to grow tiring as the songs begin to sound like they have a uniform bounce to them. "Haruspex' finds them lecturing you about male behavior. I am not sure how bad things really can be in Australia in this regard when they talk about how scared they are riding the bus, perhaps they need to ride a bus in Atlanta for some perspective e on how good they have it. The song itself sounds like a microwaved Kinks riff.  "Virga" is little more interesting musically.  They mention koalas so their appreciation of where they live shifts with the song. One thing about this album is while the production is very clean and crisp, for punk it could stand to dirty itself up a bit. "King Rat" is the first song that reminds me of Idles in the way it attacks. I had read comparisons to Idles before giving this album a shot and did not here it up until this song. 

"Kompromat" has a more thudding bass line and some groove to it. The lyrics are about cancel culture, this band is raging for the machine in this regard, and most of the lyrical points would be null if they were into the chaos and anarchy that punk is supposed to be about. "Capital" is frantic but without balls to drive and seems like a mess. It was the first song that I could not make it through. The last song is not any better but it could be they have just all worn thin on me by this point. I want punk to be about nihilism and not relentlessly positive so this just is not for me in that regard.  I will step back from M My preferences and look at this work in terms of if they were effective at what they set out to do and based of that will give this album a 7.  Not top to punk albums of the year by any means , but if you want peppy punk with a hint of social policing then this is for you.