Nothing safe or user friendly from these Chicago lifers. A front woman in the mold of Donna Damage (of No Thanks!), riffs that tread a similar path as Die Kreuzen (Cows & Beer era) or Mecht Mensch, and a recording ugly enough to match. Hardcore and nothing more.Our take: Man, what a captivating record! For all of the denseness of Udusic's sound, I feel like part of what is fascinating about this record is what the band doesn't do. This feels like hardcore deconstructed... like the band won't allow themselves to follow in others foosteps, that as soon as something starts to feel familiar they pull back and try to throw a wrench in the gears, to break the established formula. It's what unites all of the different parts of Udusic's sound and aesthetic and gives them a kind of unity through incoherence... or at least willful lack of coherence. I'm probably being vague here, so I'll try to give a little example. The lead guitarist has all of these little metallic and/or rock and roll licks that seem, on the surface at least, to be inspired by various strains of Japanese hardcore, but when I think of what's really gratifying about Japanese hardcore it's the sense of triumph in so much of the music. That sense of triumph comes from the pleasing resolution of chord progressions, but Udusic's guitarist always leaves those progressions hanging. So it sounds like Japanese hardcore, but it has a completely different feel and vibe. It's clipped, abstract, obtuse... rhythmically, melodically, lyrically... so, even though the sound itself is completely dense and maximalist in nature, I feel like it has more of a kinship with a long tradition of minimalist punk running from Wire to the Minutemen to Die Kreuzen to Born Against. I wouldn't say that Udusic particularly sound like any of those bands, but Udusic occupies that same space where they overlap on the hardcore venn diagram. So, don't expect this record to give you immediate gratification, but if you like a record that teases you, frustrates you, and refuses to let you figure it out this couldn't be more highly recommended.
