Total Control

Despite the Eddy Current and UV Race connections, something failed to grab me on Total Control's early singles but after a few listens to their debut long player Henge Beat it’s clear that those early judgments were made in haste. The album wraps the Suppression Ring's past gazing energy in a blitz of squirming keys, post-punk distance and rhythms fraught with teeth. It’s hard to package an album like this into any box, like the best of its modern contemporaries it slices the bits it fancies from a cross section of genres leaving hints of the original forms hanging like sweat on the air. In this tradition Total Control manage to force a few disparate influences into misshapen molds and make them admit they like it. With a lyrical bite that borders on sneering and borders on nihilism the band feel like a perfect fit for 2011, they're self-aware without ever giving an inch. Henge Beat feels like a necessary accessory to making it through this year.

Download:
[MP3] Total Control - Retiree

Support the artist. Buy it: HERE