The Hotwires - 'Ignition' (Artrocker)
4/5
By: Toby L
Somewhat of a distressing car-fetish in operation here. Not merely The Hotwires, not just a razor-sharp, punk-addled debut record emblazoned 'Ignition' - but speed-dials adorning the sleeve, and an overriding notion that this London-based quartet are quite possibly the finest fusers presently in operation of both distortion-driven sounds of yore, and a bitter raggedness indicative of a bunch of true, 21st Century degenerates.
Yet every aspect of this art is nihilistically intentional, right down to the blaring keyboards that wrestle and nestle amongst frontman Billy Nameless' righteous howl, or Harry Stein's pulsating guitar-sections. Fast, loud and ear-arrestingly fully charged, they come on like Black Flag challenging The Damned to a cliff-diving contest.
And just listen to these jams - all together now - 'MOTION SICKNESS! MOTION SICKNESS!' they exclaim vehemently - while 'Car Crash #1' slides and gristles its way into your withering psyche, 'Big City' pummelling and piling, and 'Kill The KKK For Inner Peace', well, being pretty self-explanatory.
There's 13 of these buggers, too - in total, a pulse-racing antidote to a modern-day life of monotony... Just to think it was all recorded in a two-day binge in a North London community-centre; living-proof that technical flawlessness can never compensate for genuine, raw and often uncompromising, emotive vision.
Artists in this article: The Hotwires
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