Popmatters Review

Popmatters Review

The Death Set, To (RabbitFoot)

A joyous burst of noise-pop exuberance, The Death Set's To packs seven punchy songs into 12 minutes of simple keyboard lines, distorted guitars, and shouted vocals. The duo has migrated from Australia to Baltimore, but their sound is straight out of the New York City avant-loft scene of Japanther and affiliates. With more energy than profundity, co-lead singer Johnny Siera's high-pitched yelping sounds like mid-'90s Bis at that band's most excited state; I had him pegged as a woman declaring, "take it from me, I'm a feminist" on "Boys/Girls" (turns out he's saying "I'm effeminate", and the song's main argument is that "if I was gay I would get more sex"; it's more stupid than offensive, but the Death Set are not staking their claim to fame on lyrical depth anyway). The art-damage factor never impedes the sharp hooks, and nice touches like the machine-gun-fire percussive interjections that punctuate the bouncy rhythms of "Snap" insure that listener attention never wanders. That this will probably be embraced by the smarmy Vice set doesn't detract from its irrepressibly frenetic charm. [Insound]
— Whitney Strub