Full-on Mod-rockin’ good times – garagey guitars jerking about, organ wailing, vocals howling – The Agenda! work up a sweat and miss some notes along the way.
The band’s second masterstroke, 13 possesses of many of the qualities which made Further a success, yet it is an altogether angrier and more aggressive animal.
The new vessel of ex-KMFDM members En Esch and Guenter Schulz. Dick Nity displays the nearly-perfect mixing and mastering production we’ve come to expect.
Like a Swedish garage rock version of early Donnas, they’re cute, they rock pretty hard, but the singer yelps and hisses like a pissy kitty instead of sings.
Reaching back to Killing Joke, Ministry, and Godflesh, Raunchy bridge the old school with the new, most notably that of Fear Factory and Strapping Young Lad.
Haunted cellists Rasputina offer their dankly corset-ed Phantom of the Opera-esque renditions of more rock’n’roll favorites on The Lost and Found 2nd Edition.
Melodies – both guitar and vocals – wrench your heart like a good tragic movie, while the speed and adrenaline of the performances are scathingly tight.