Not content with pouring their bleak urgency all over the trials and tribulations of modern existence with 2017 LP Gestalt, Negative Space return with a seven-song slab of brutalist post-punk and its another triumph. Seething with fury, it almost (but not quite) masks its venomously-spat lyrical content behind angular basslines that Steve Hanley wouldve been proud to call his own and guitar chords that teeter and totter between the blunt force of Black Flag and the dissonant crunch of Gang of Four. This is no easy ride; its music that wraps itself up in peril before clawing its way out and stomping on whatevers left.

With song titles like Theft Utopia and Performative, you know what youre getting a pointed railing against those who hide behind hypocrisy and illusion, while the monochrome glare of the music makes it clear that none of this is to be fucked with. At times it even sounds like weve been caught up in the textured smoosh of Sonic Youths Washing Machine, with guitars exploding into senses-crushing fog even as the mechanical clank of the rhythm section continues its relentless, insistent pounding. Sometimes, of course, they just give way to waves of intense hardcore riffery thats part frustration, part release but all of it sounds like everyday life, condensed into one thrilling piece of rock music thats way too smart for its own good. More like this, please.