SUPERSYSTEM "A Million Microphones" Touch & Go PARTYLINE "Zombie Terrorist" Retard Disco
Friday, October 20, 2006; Page WE11
SUPERSYSTEM"A Million Microphones"Touch & GoPARTYLINE"Zombie Terrorist"Retard Disco
NOT ALL OF EL GUAPO'S members relocated from Washington to New York as the band became Supersystem, but the quartet's first album under its new name, last year's "Always Never Again," committed 100 percent to Gotham's punk-funk revival. That scene got very crowded very quickly, however, so the new "A Million Microphones" tinkers with the formula. Such songs as "The Only Way It's Ever Been Done" are still beat-crazy but with a starkness that is closer to LCD Soundsystem (and the Dismemberment Plan) than the jittery sound that dominated Brooklyn indie rock a few years ago.
The drawback to this approach is that it sometimes yields a mere sketch of a song, as in the case of the album's musically slight closer, "Revolution Summer," a memoir of Washington's 1985 punk renaissance. Supersystem's current style works better when the band fills in more of the blank spaces: "Prophets" and "Eagles Fleeing Eyries" use chiming riffs that evoke Afrobeat, "The City" adds a go-go beat and "Joy" benefits from a female vocal counterpoint. Those tracks are fully realized, but overall "A Million Microphones" sounds a little tentative.
As the voice of early '90s band Bratmobile, Allison Wolfe scourged the enemies of grrrl-dom, including boys, men and grown-ups. Her new trio might seem to offer a more playful attitude. After all, the group calls itself Partyline, and its first long-player is titled "Zombie Terrorist." Yet there's plenty of genuine indignation fueling such songs as "Party-n-Animal" ("You ain't pro-life / You're all about death") and "Nuthaus" ("I don't want to marry / And I don't want to have your brats").
Zombie and E.T. japes aside, the main difference between Bratmobile and Partyline is that the latter is more organized. On this disc, which presents 11 sing-songy broadsides in 18 minutes, the voice-guitar-drums lineup is underpinned by guest bassist Michael Cotterman. (Cotterman and Wolfe work part time at The Post.) That helps keep the music on track, but the engine is still Wolfe's outrage, which in the past 15 years has lost little of its intensity and none of its purpose.
-- Mark Jenkins
Appearing Friday at the Black Cat with Zombi.
