The Other Side of Fear

“Piss off the neighbours, play it loud,” says the sleeve-note on this charming example of asbo-rock from this Dublin-based quintet, and it’s perfectly good advice. Recorded on the “first take it or leave it” principle, the album packs more punch than works toiled over for aeons, with a batch of fifteen provocative songs, mostly penned by former Hot Press scribe Paul O’Mahony, who double-jobs on rhythm guitar and vocals.
Loko Parentis brew an exuberant stew of intensely-wrought, dark post-punk songs, tricked out with guerrilla guitars, jagged rhythms, deceptively catchy hooks and vocals that follow you all around the room. The rueful ‘Rhythmatism’ has a frenetic piledriver rhythm, and all the concise ‘New Default Mode’ needs is a movie to match its widescreen western vision. The defiant ‘Emotional Violence’ is laden with air-raid guitars and chilling vocals, ’Singular Obsessions’ has a jaunty swagger, like a punk take on M’s ‘Pop Musik’, and ‘If You See Me On the Street Stop Me And Say Hello’ is like Devo rumbling in the jungle with Dr Feelgood.
Along the way, Loko Parentis rail at the modern world, and the ins and outs of loves true and otherwise – but with an inspiring defiance rather than despair. That you can wig out to almost all of it is an added bonus.