Magik Markers - Boss

Droning, screeching, sneering, detuned discord and recorded in the cavernous depths of Echo Canyon - this is what punk has come round to in the 21st century, isn't it? Post neo-new wave of the sort that Sonic Youth and DNA spawned in their trail wherever they toured.

Here, clashing guitars, pianos and drums sound like an alchemist's experiments with the essential compounds that made up Bardo Pond and Kousokuya with an added catalyst of freak-folk that all equates to an album that is no easy ride, but filled with curiosities and wonderment for those listeners willing to be caught up inside the Magik Markers' bubbling cauldron. Whereas previous MM albums have been epic sprawls of rock-improv, Boss condenses that aesthetic into more manageable 'songs', that have all the caustic swagger of Nick Cave's Birthday Party but with Elisa Ambrogio's spit-chic vocals and Jodorowsky-esque esoteric lyrics making this album feel like a peyote ritual, all frantic visions and truth behind the doors of perception, despite each track's five minute running length. [Ali Maloney]