Le Red Soul Communitte

Album Review

Considering that the bandmembers' surnames are all Sinclair, it's not surprising that MC5's blistering brand of garage rock is a major influence on Tokyo Sex Destruction's debut album, Le Red Soul Comunnitte (10 Points Program). However, the Spanish group also bears more than a nodding resemblance to some of their Swedish contemporaries, reflecting some of the Hives' explosive attacks and International Noise Conspiracy's radical left-wing politics (of course, both traits can also be traced back to MC5 as well). Tokyo Sex Destruction displays lots of power and passion on the album, but their songwriting skills aren't always quite on a par with their energy and enthusiasm; it's both a blessing and a curse that Le Red Soul Comunnitte opens with the best distillation of the band's sound, "Break-Out Town" (which was also featured on the Dim Mak Sampler 2003). A breathless youth-rebellion manifesto that speeds along on handclaps, organs, and "hey hey hey" choruses, it also features a breakdown that finds singer RJ Sinclair shouting passionately, in heavily accented English, "And everybody really really know that 75 percent of all people can't pay their rent to live/Yeah, and the rich people spend their money on illegal job/Come on everybody/What can we do and what can we say?" From there, Le Red Soul Comunnitte (10 Points Program) has almost nowhere to go but downhill, but fortunately the slide isn't too steep. Even though songs like "Black Money" and "First Day" are more energetic than they are melodic, "Capitalism Plus Dope Equal Genocide," "She's So Fine," and "You Gotta Do It" serve up some memorable hooks along with raw power. Even though their music isn't especially distinctive, Tokyo Sex Destruction does deliver it with boundless enthusiasm, which may be enough to make Le Red Soul Comunnitte (10 Points Program) a must-have for garage rock diehards. [The Japanese version included bonus tracks.]