Big Yawn Review

Big Yawn Review

The Death Set
To - EP
Rabbit Foot Records
8 Z's

The Death Set .::. To - EP

The Death Set's two-man mini riot wield punky guitar smashing, panicky electro squawking, tinny drum machines and samples from old anti-drug videos -- then they smash seven shades of shit out of them against homemade mics, drench the product in sweat, saliva and sarcastic exuberance, and allow the results to stew in their own garishly vivacious pop expressionism.



To, or you may choose to use my own suggested title "How To Smash Shit Up," is the 7 track, 13 minute, debut release from co-guitarists and co-vocalists Beau Velasco and Johnny Siera. Originally formed in Sydney, Australia, the duo re-located to Baltimore, US of A, in search of a thriving alt. scene to embrace their brand of semi-experimental panic punk. The EP is laden with a mish mash of melodic casio beats, chanted lyrical mantras and fuzzed out guitar solos, creating a vibrant wall of catchy hooks, busy flicking pretty switches and not taking itself too seriously.



Highlight tracks such as "Negative Thinking" and the closer "Around the World" cut a smartly executed tightrope walk between Le Tigre's whining electro pop and the now defunct Test Icicles' raucous punk-metal vigour, only just tipping too far into unlistenable conceptualism on "Snap," with its inserts of pneumatic drill drum machines cutting painfully into your ears followed by a neat summary of "It's so frustrating," "Around the World" in particular shows the Death Set's fidgety disenchantment in its most focussed prime, with the memorably confident megalomania of "We go around the world and we do what must be done, we're on a top secret mission and our enemies are wishin' that they had a bigger gun" undercut by an abrasive bassline and the band's style of genderless twin vocals whining and screaming against each other.



To works well, with a colourful short attention span being the adhesive between dirty fun punk, old grimy default electric beats and squirts of bits and bobs to compliment a pleasingly messy blend.