Album Review: Deaf Wish - Pain

Melbourne maelstrom Deaf Wish rise again with Pain and waste no time in throwing their discordant weight into familiar and unexplored territories.

The Whip opens like Pere Ubu at their basest, monotony marred by serrated edges and disconcerting vocals. The meticulousness implodes on squalling punk splurge Newness Again, before sliding into a Kim-led Sonic Youth cruiser They Know. A dishevelled slacker downer arrives in the form of Sunset's Fool; there's the barking-mad tempest of Eyes Closed; the menacing hush of Sex Witch. The last two tracks, Dead Air and Calypso, deliciously stretch things out into a knockout-cum-meltdown.