(Chicks On Speed Records/Inertia)

Australian/American/German trio Chicks On Speed’s latest (third) album ‘Press The Spacebar’ emerges barely a year on the heels of last year’s ‘99 Cents’, which saw the CoS performance ‘core’ of Kiki Moorse, Melissa Logan and Alex Murray-Leslie working with a suite of different electronic producers, including Captain Comatose. In many ways, ‘Press The Spacebar’ represents the sharpest ‘left turn’ so far amongst their discography, with the overriding sheeny electroclash meets riot grrl stylings of previous albums largely replaced with an overdriven dirty garage rock approach more in common with the likes of Nina Hagen, The Slits and Bikini Kill, on these fifteen tracks. For ‘Press The Spacebar’, CoS have teamed up with producer Cristian Vogel (one half of Super_Collider along with Jamie Lidell, and known for his own productions on labels such as Tresor, Novamute) and little-known Spanish band The NoHeads, in order to create an album that “draws references to the DIY bands of the late 70s, in approach and musical delivery.”

Opening track ‘The Household Song’ immediately hints that CoS aren’t going to be covering their usual synth-driven territory, with lo-fi, almost swingtime beats sliding alongside a dry wheezing bass and all manner of clanging ‘found’ sounds – in many ways, it almost comes across more like some lost, dusty psychedelic 7” that you might have found in an attic – a relic from some hipped-up, CBGBs-inclined older cousin. As soon as the trademark CoS group vocal slides in alongside the drums though, celebrating the idea of ‘housework as sexy’ and loaded with their trademark feminist bite, the transition seems far less strange than it might have first appeared. After all, while CoS have often previously been lumped in with the rest of ‘electroclash’ (a factor possibly not aided by their Berlin homebase), rather than drawing upon the often-mined resources of New Wave and synthpop, their overall sound and vocal delivery always struck me as being a lot closer to early eighties NYC stuff. ‘Mitte Bitte’ slides in some curious Neu!-meets-punk drums and burbling synths underneath blazing punky guitar riffs and the Chicks’ distorted Deutsch lyrics, a twangy bass that’s part Joy Division and part Jah Wobble rattling along below, while ‘Class War’ opens with the statement “let’s play war” before roaring into a furious punk flameout, spiralling disembodied radio transmissions and feedback providing an incendiary backdrop for shouted lyrics; “You people who can’t afford to eat / drive your car, ‘cos petrol is cheap.”

‘Culture Vulture’ brings the synths and electronics back to the foreground, with vast clanging, almost hiphop-styled industrial beats and whirring textures locking in tight alongside clipped, robotic-sounding vocals that get pushed through all manner of digital trickery, while curious wobbles that sound like massive turntable stops threaten to derail the track halfway. ‘Ten Thousand Years’ opens with an array of brittle-sounding drum machines being toyed with, before rocketing into floaty-guitar surf-rock underpinned with slamming drums and power chords, the Chicks’ chorus refrain of “Ten thousand years / throw it in the trash” charging through the speakers, while ‘Madalyn Albright’s Answer’ offers one of this album’s more outwardly electro-charged moments, with clicking drum machines gliding alongside reverb-heavy electronic tones and relentless synths, the punky vocals of the Chicks’ interchanging with Cristian Vogel’s rapped vocals in a smooth fusion of krautrock glide and glittering minimal electronics.

The memorably-titled ‘Wax My Anus’ (actually inspired by quotes taken from Q mag’s classic London interview with the then tired-and-emotional Courtney Love) opens with a single tentatively-plucked guitar figure over which swirling vocals (“plastic surgery cover girl” being just a sample) trail, the entire track viciously toying with a bastardised Hole riff, with digitally cut and scattered guitars while laying the lyrical cannon straight at Ms. Love-Cobain (a screeched “wax my anus / is what she said” repeats throughout). ‘Hand In My Pocket’ offers a curious musique concrete-meets ambient downtempo moment, with all manner of percussive textures, detuned guitars and swelling electronics sitting below a spoken vocal describing the daily routine of getting ready for work before deconstructing into weird freeform vocals and unhinged noises, before ‘Madalyn Albright Strikes Again’ closes this album, reprising the gliding electro rhythms, distorted electronic tones and ringing noises explored earlier while scattering male and female vocals over the beats.

Chicks On Speeds’ previous two albums have certainly seemed to sharply divide listeners into one of two ‘camps’; those who don’t quite click with Cos’ mash-and-paste D.I.Y. aesthetic (complicated perhaps also by the fact that CoS quite openly source other musicians / producers because ‘it would take a long time to learn those skills.’) and those who are firmly down with the shouted politically-charged lyrics and handmade stage outfits. While some listeners who came into CoS on the electro tangent may not immediately warm to the more distorted ‘band-oriented’ tracks on ‘Press The Spacebar’, this is definitely an album that grows after repeated listens, and though the switch from synths to stratocasters might at first seem like a step too far, the trademark biting CoS wit and satire still pokes through. If you’re not into CoS however, ‘Press The Spacebar’ is probably unlikely to convert, and the fragmented, freeform nature of some of these tracks might result in the feeling that this was an album more fun to make, than it is to listen to.

Check out http://www.chicksonspeed-records.com.