Thanks to this, I discovered what a thotcrime is, but sticking to the matter in hand the band by this name is a cybergrind group, taking its influence from grindcore, mathcore and hyperpop amongst others. When I saw this album’s title, it reminded me of one of those weird car number plates but it reflects their growing reputation and placement in the world’s online community, a presence which I must confess to having missed out on so far.
As I listened to “This isn’t Foundatio, Now Can I Have Your Skin Please?”, it occurred to me that if this is what an urban car crash would sound like in outer space, this would be it. Hardcore mixes with a world of sound and what might be a melodic chorus, but isn’t because it’s distorted. That’s 96 seconds dealt with. Hard, fast, explosive – the next one is a nightmare. Clearly this was never going to be a lovely day by the river in summer. It’s urban, it’s punkish, it’s anarchic, it’s robotic, it’s cybermetal alright. I did like “Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria”, the song that is. “trust://fall” smacks hard with its sinister gothic style female vocal which reminded me a little of In This Moment and Toyah, but it goes somewhere interesting with its metal beat and cyber waves. Let the video games begin: oh, “4V3R4G3 TU35D4Y” explodes and bursts into a rapid-fire rant in an arcade, with a hostile message to end. The anarchy of it has an air of Talking Heads but the violent electronica and aggression take us somewhere else. It’s goth electronica next up with “Tweet This!”. Short piece follows short piece. The recipe is the same but the order is different. I liked the edgy choruses, I liked the firepower and I liked the blazing cyber and metal touches but as a whole this wasn’t working me. Off the wall songs like “Motherfucker Unlimited” brought back good memories of the Scary Bitches, and I liked the aggression and anarchy but it all seemed to be for its own sake. But where the Scary Bitches had humour, this is sinister, none more so than the closing “I Couldn’t End Me, So I’d Like To See You Try”.
Musically, I found this an inventive mix – hardcore, cyber electronica and an urban edge. “D1G1T4L DR1FT” is a strange album to listen to. I can’t think of any occasion where I’d ever want to listen to this at home. The ingredients are all there but for me it’s very cold when listened to alone. Maybe it’s the mix. I can picture listening to this in a decaying room full of smoke, with speakers blaring and colourful, threatening-looking people belting out these numbers. Yet live performance doesn’t seem to be on the agenda if this band earns its fame or notoriety online. It makes no sense to me, but I can say that if this was supposed to stir or wind me up or inspire me in some way, it didn’t.
(4/10 Andrew Doherty)
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