Aiding & Abetting and Crud Magazine Reviews

Aiding & Abetting Review

The Death Set
To
(Rabbitfoot/Morphius)
New wave meets no wave. The Death Set uses bouncy keyboard riffs and increasingly strained vocals to create a grating and exhilarating album. This disc might be that one night stand you can't resist--even though you know you'll be paying for it in the morning.

Manic, crazed and yet surprisingly tuneful. If I were in a sillier mood, I might call these songs goofy. But I don't think that's quite right. Nonetheless, these folks visit the rational world infrequently.

Which makes these songs that much more exciting. Sane people wouldn't make stuff like this. I have to admit that guessing which mental disorder is most prevalent in the band is a lot of fun. Mania is winning out right now.

The vast majority of people will run screaming from this album. And they should. The Death Set is for true believers only. And if you can figure out exactly what to believe after hearing this set, you're way ahead of me.



Crud Magazine Review
DEATH SET, THE
TO
Label: RABBITFOOT/VLXO
Rating: ****
Submitted: 03/05/2006
Reviewer: Alan Sargeant
www: http://www.thedeathset.com

Sitting nervously somewhere between the outrageous, manic pop of Japanese bands like Polysics, the thrashing, eccentric beehive of bands like the B52s and Apples In Stereo, the genderless cyber punk of acts like Sigue Sigue Sputnik and the post-punk chic of The Rapture, The Death Set spit, growl and bomb their way into the headlights of an oncoming chart vehicle.

Born out of Sydneys experimental rock outfit, Black Panda, the To EP features just over a half dozen crazy, pop-art shredding 2 minute pops songs crafted around a fiery pop anthem, a fuzzy hook, some clips from the sound library and a clipped robotic beat. Yeah, theyre a fairly indistinguishable and blurry bunch of songs, but the lack of meaningful punctuation means the record coasts by with a frightening velocity, leaving you breathless, exhausted yet strangely re-energized.

Excellent stuff.