Henge Beat

iTunes Review

Thirty-plus years after the first scratchy mewlings of post-punk, a wave of bands in the U.S. and abroad have had the audacity to try to remake the genre in their own image. Thank goodness for that! If you missed the original post-punk era, bands like Australia’s Total Control (featuring members of Eddy Current Suppression Ring and UV Race) resurrect the thrill delivered by those noisy and unsettling (at the time) performances that took place in tiny, dank clubs and cold, cavernous warehouses. “Retiree” has all the thrust and excitement of a Swell Maps and Pink Flag–era Wire mashup; “One More Tonight” and “Carpet Rash” pick up where the punkier side of Joy Division left off; and “The Hammer” and “Sunday Baker” pulse with a neon, Kraftwerkian heart. The goosestep-inducing vocals on “No Bibs” and the sterile robotics of “Meds II” and “See More Glass” are rooted in Suicide's chill. Even Ultravox is resuscitated here, on the sparkling closer “Love Performance.” Little did the late Nikki Sudden and Ian Curtis know they'd be so emulated for decades to come—likely they wouldn’t have cared much, but we do.