The following might be words that relate to the sound and feel of Disappointing Sequel, the second album from Repairs, out this week: tension, discordant contrarianism, tearing metal, nosebleeds, morse code, ensemble yelling, guitar feedback, aneurisms, anarchy machines, absolute defiance ….

In case you didn’t know there’s a revolution coming and its being led out by Martin Phillips, James Milne and Nicola Edwards. Disappointing Sequel looks like the post-rock, post nationalism soundtrack to the revolution’s first wave. It’s virtually unrelenting, like waking up reconceived as a dead punchbag, being processed by some futuristic noise machine, and shot up by guns-cum-weird futuristic metallic guitars. 

I don’t think the beginning a new world order has ever sounded so good. Almost good enough to look forward to it? Well here’s what this record did for me: I listened on repeat, over and over, I pranced around my lounge pulling weird anarchistic faces, I prayed for a most colossal home stereo, prayed for a revolution party, I dealt with some anger issues, I had moments of clarity, and I slept better afterwards. It’s all entirely consistent with the message sent by the band’s very name: to restore something damaged or broken to good condition or working order. 

The opener Tailspin sets the scene. Overcome, as if gone mad, the band sets up for the next half hour with a repeating bass, computer and industrial clatter, coded beeping and noise. Then we’re straight into Mosaic, the second single released off the album (following Map, Territory), with bass and drums driving the song like an industrial hammer, a metallic guitar piercing through and the protagonist reflecting on what’s going wrong: The same mistakes over and again, and not so much freewheeling to nowhere but running flat out on some hellish hamster wheel.

Throughout this record the band builds a convincing landscape to share what seem to be an authentic view on the shape of the current world. The song titles alone give you a sense of this topography: Strange Times, Math Grenades, Auto Icon, Open Plan Anxiety, Doomscrolling. The titles might seem overt, but the lyrics are often beautifully obscure and wide-reaching. Musically, it’s inventive, riff-driven, catchy, but also complex and full of trickery. It’s shape and mood are unrelenting (quite an achievement for an album-long sweep), but there are still brief moments of space between the mayhem and anxiety, there are hoax time signatures, phrasing in the delivery that deliberate and effective. The album as a whole has a sense of having been executed pretty much exactly as the band intended.

Is it post-rock? Avant-garde post-industrial? I don’t think Repairs are aiming for, or even care for, a neat fit into any established genre or scene. Inevitably there might be comparisons with High Dependency Unit and Die! Die! Die!, both pioneers in New Zealand – but I think what Repairs are doing here is something else. This music stands up on new terms that are this bands alone. Its complex, loud, critical, current, and brilliantly executed. 

• 1
  Devilskin
• 2
  Coridian
• 3
  Anxiety Club
• 4
  Skinny Hobos
• 5
  Take Hold
• 6
  Shihad
• 7
  Head Like A Hole
• 8
  Villainy
• 9
  Katchafire
• 10
  Like A Storm

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• 1
  FORTNIGHT
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• 2
  TOO SWEET
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• 3
  DOWN BAD
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• 4
  THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT
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• 5
  SO LONG, LONDON
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• 6
  I CAN DO IT WITH A BROKEN HEART
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• 7
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• 8
  BUT DADDY I LOVE HIM
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  FLORIDA!!!
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  WHO'S AFRAID OF LITTLE OLD ME?
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