Pop:
Paradise builds on 2013’s Imps of Perversion LP by venturing further outside of traditional notions of punk, and diving even deeper into outer sounds. Synthesizers, mechanized drum machines, and samplers play as critical a role on the record as the more familiar squall of Ivan Drip’s buzzsaw guitar and Chris Bug’s vocals. Any noise a band member could make that helped contribute to the record’s atmosphere of unease was welcome; synth player Allegra Sauvage adds cello to two songs, and drummer/producer Andy Chugg plays trumpet on the title track. The songs lose none of their primal immediacy through the addition of these new sounds, but the instrumentation lends them a maximalist streak as well. The sessions for Paradise were held at the Population Control Center, and the result is the most collaborative Pop. 1280 release to date.
Paws:
More than just the third PAWS record, “No Grace” is representative of a transformative period of time in the young Scottish band’s life and is the gravel-throated affirmation of that ‚do it or die‘ attitude that informs any great work of passion. It’s the song you sing when you get kicked in the teeth; the decision you make to get back on your feet and rattle off another punch; it’s the humility of defeat and the ecstasy of triumph because you never gave up. But more than anything, it’s the sound of the pure energy and joy that comes from making something with your whole heart.