A Place to Bury Strangers – Transfixiation

Frenzied wind, screeching subway trains, corrupted radio transmissions and the rusty insides of a petrol engine: these are just a few of the sounds evoked by the shape-shifting cornucopia of noise Oliver Ackermann conjures on Transfixiation. In line with their previous material, Ackermann and crew couch these sonic experiments within familiar proto-punk song structures, inviting comparisons with guitar fuzz pioneers The Jesus and Mary Chain that his blunt, cool-guy vocal delivery does little to hide.

More technologically minded and with access to a heck of a lot of equipment (Ackermann’s other gig is engineering effects pedals), APTBS offer a futuristic reimagining of JAMC’s distorted swagger: take I’m So Clean, which mounts Jim Reid’s motorbike from The Living End and takes it for a night-time spin through a rain-slicked anime dystopia. Distinctly lacking though is a sense of urgency or purpose; Transfixiation keeps the 30 year-old racket going but without really adding much to the blueprint.