Album Review

Off! – Off!

• 14th May 2012

After producing the First Four EPs collection, hardcore punk band Off!, the latest project of former Black Flag vocalist Keith Morris, now release what they call a “full length” album. But being Morris there is a twist. There may be sixteen tracks on the record, yet in total it clocks in at around 16 minutes of actual music. The longest track is 1:36 and the shortest just 41 seconds.

There is, understandably, a manic intensity to the music. The multitracked riffs are played at a frantic rate, the drums pound, the bass thunders and Morris screams and sneers the short, angry phrases that make up the lyrics with all the style of a distorted Johnny Rotten.

“Even though we have the luxury of taking a long time with things, we’d rather be true to the spirit of the way things used to be,” explained guitarist Dimitri Coats, who also produced the album. “By putting yourself in those situations, an urgency is created, and that’s very much what we’re after.”

The sound comes straight from the Black Flag school of fast riffs and rough, edgy production. The tracks are concentrated, as if longer songs had been boiled down to the barest of essentials. It’s not easy to get your message across when you only give yourself a minute per track to do so, but Morris manages it.

The lyrics are pretty much all first person tirades, railing against the world. Keith Morris may be well into his fifties now, but there is clearly no sign of mellowing here. Titles like Elimination, Wrong and Toxic Box bristle with rage, while in Man From Nowhere he wants to take on anyone and everyone..

King Kong Brigade is the only track to clock in at over 90 seconds long; it even has the indulgence of a short, soft intro before the guitar bursts into life. And it ends with a pack of small dogs yelping. Not sure I get that one.

The last track, I Need One (I Want One), finishes with a slightly crazy laugh and then one final defiant scream that seems to say, “That’s it. I’m done. And I don’t really care what you think of it.” Pure punk theatre in other words,

It’s difficult to summarise what is such an intense album. The speed is such that tracks almost merge into each other, and before you know it the album is over. But there is no doubting the energy and ferocity of the music. It is designed to be hard hitting and it certainly doesn’t miss the mark. Fans of Off! are going to love this one.