Rad Warehouses Bad Neighbourhoods

In and out in just under 16 minutes -- and nearly a third of that is devoted to a pair of extended remixes of two of the album's strongest songs -- Rad Warehouses Bad Neighborhoods is minimalist, punky new wave revivalism cut to the bone. Like Suicide with slightly better equipment and a more sure sense of pitch, or the Go! Team in a much crankier mood, this Australian duo are all about the creation of unnerving atmospheres: even the most pop-oriented tunes here, like the perky cheer leading chant "Distressed by Late Night Television," have an unsettling, needly edge. Some of the 12 songs aren't even long enough to do much more than that, but a couple of listens reveal some clever, catchy hooks half-buried amid the buzzing synths, hectoring vocals and malfunctioning rhythm boxes. Perhaps not for the faint of heart, there's a smart sense of structure underpinning these songs that at first seems almost random and improvised. ~ Stewart Mason|