Party Zero

These are some serious times. Insurrections. Global pandemics. The return of fascism. Climate crises. Welcome to the bummer-zone. But if you’ve got angst in your pants and you need to dance, or scream, or play guitar too loud too close to your amplifier, it’s time to let your freak flag fly. That’s what Live Skull are doing, anyway. Veteran New York noisers who went on indefinite hiatus just before their kind of smart, gnarly, inventive din became lucrative, they rose again in 2016, not with the intention of inaugurating a second act to their story but doing so anyway, and have since created some of the most exciting music of their career. Their new album Party Zero – their third since rising from the grave – is one of their finest, redefining what Live Skull means, after a couple of albums that saw them transitioning from being a group with a past to one with a future. Party Zero is, undeniably, big in sound, brash in dynamics. But the sophistication that was always the group’s calling card remains an essential element, dealing in the kind of pulverising pell-mell that characterised the 80s New York sound, but also radiant with melody, the fusion of noise and unexpected tunefulness delivering a heady, psychedelic effect.