Displeasure – ANNIHILATION/BILLIONAIRE DEATH DRIVE (13th Floor Album Review)
Displeasure is a toru piece Whanganui/Te-Whanganui-a-Tara based side-project of stalwart Pōneke punk band Unsanitary Napkin.
Annihilation/Billionaire Death Drive is their second release, and has been impressively preceded by tours to Japan, Taiwan, and Australia.
Displeasure draws on a range of well-worn musical genres, including the 1980s Crass, Anarcho-Punk movement and the electro-punk sound of bands like Ministry and Revolting Cocks. Over the tekau ma tahi songs and intermissions on Annihilation/Billionaire Death Drive, the trio swing from intense electro punk, danceable soundsnippets and sampled media bites. Unifying across all, is the politics of rebellion. Rebellion against 1% Billionaires manipulating political systems, environmental fascism and the failure to hold aggressors to account in Palestine and elsewhere.
In all this intensity though, Displeasure have produced an album that is tracked cleverly, to avoid aural overload, creating balance and space. In tandem, the recording values are high enough to hear nuances in their harsher efforts. As a piece of Aotearoan electro-punk, Annihilation/Billionaire Death Drive is a mighty piece of taonga, those of the band members ilk will likely revel in the album’s pūrākau.
Simon Coffey
Annihilation/Billionaire Death Drive is out now!
