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Auckland, New Zealand’s Trust Punks’ new album, Double Bind, aggressively consolidates their strengths as one of the most exhilarating young acts out there - blisteringly sharp, smart and spry. From the cold water surf of surging opener ‘Paradise/angel-wire’, the band is on a tear through an Australasia that’s a precarious and nasty place for the young and the restless. Whether they’re adopting the snarling id of suburban nationalists, or casting a harsh eye on the American way of life, incarceration and death (as on the incongruously sprightly ‘Good Luck With That’) theirs is a serving of wit and fury in equal measure.

They’re also willing to turn the gaze on themselves, as bitter, discordant exorcisms give way to an unbearable sweetness. The stridency of Double Bind’s opening 1-2 leads into the poignant jolt of ‘The Reservoir’, as Alexander Grant pleads “I’m not bold enough”. On ‘Riding It Out’, Joseph Thomas grips crippling depression by the horns and rides it over a grinding Krautrock beat. Grant’s see-sawing melodies and Thomas’s belting rasp are Double Bind’s yin and yang – each a reminder of the challenging terrain post-punk was meant to stake out.

From Polvo to This Heat, from Can to Wire, from Stereolab to The Birthday Party – it’s all in here, synthesized and absorbed into something new and hungry. In a time where there’s more vying for your attention than ever – more outrage, more distraction, more content – Double Bind ticks all the boxes. It’s angry for all the same reasons you are, but it’s also involving and intricate, a record to get lost in. And like the best records of its kind, it seeps into your brain, your feet, and your being.

Co-released by Faux Discx (UK, Wharfcat Records (US) and Spunk (AUS).

VINYL: Edition of 1000. 180g black vinyl. Reverse-board printed sleeve with spine and printed inner-sleeve. Comes with digital download code.

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