Two years and a handful of months on from igniting the senses and passions with their previous album, Supersonic, French punks Union Jack have unleashed a just as voracious and compelling assault in the shape of Violence. With ten tracks which sonically live up to its title, the band’s new full-length ravages as it snarls, bounces as it unleashes ravening contagion. After the release of its predecessor we suggested that the Paris hailing trio could infringe on the world beyond their homeland, the UK and parts of Europe; with its successor we expect it.
In many ways Violence is a somewhat harsher and fractious trespass than that offered by Supersonic but still ripe with the instinctive catchiness and contagious character which marked out that previous outing. From vocals to sound, textures to aggression, it is an openly feral affair but one swiftly proving addictively contagious to ears and an ever hungry punk appetite.
Since emerging in 1997, Union Jacks’ fusion of punk, ska, hardcore and raw rock ‘n’ roll has bred its own individuality, one which has grown and evolved as a host of other flavours has been embraced and Violence only stretches that adventure. With its untamed air and trespass, the album in some ways looks back on the band’s early releases but with its noise fuelled twists, lyrical world attacking irritability, and rapacious almost cacophonous breath it is a whole fresh incitement for Union Jack and punk itself.
The album opens up with So Cold, the beat bouncing invitation of drummer Antoine Sirven Gabiache leading the way before the guitar of Tom Marchal and bass of Rude Ben spin their equally ear summoning threads of sound around the song’s initial lure. Quickly it is a volatile stroll of sound and infection, mouth-watering discord uniting with punk belligerence in music and voice, the mesh of vocal voracity from all three band members as tenacious as it is mischievously dissonant. With an At The Drive In-esque sonic tension and unpredictability, the track makes for a striking start to Violence with devilish keys adding to the temptation.
Venom ensures it continues as its swinging gait and savagery is immediately infectious, guitar and bass driving a boisterously truculent and catchy attack with the latter laying down a wicked groove as again vocals collude in a magnetic squall. Three minutes of noisy punk manipulation leads to two minutes of noise twisting ferity as Dance In The Fire springs its own cauldron of vocal and sonic dispute around manipulative hooks and grooves which invade and incite body and instinctive pleasure. The track is pure rock ‘n’ roll at its most wild yet deviously sculpted.
Poison Me instantly infests ears with a dancing melody if one with a certain acerbic edge which is inflamed across the instantly following hooks and an enterprise exposed by craft and imagination. Nimble keys flirt and tease from within the web of contagion unleashed by guitar and bass, the song a rousing and refreshing slice of animated ingenuity proving a definite favourite though matched throughout the album as proven by the calmer but as hungrily catchy Legacy. Like Joe Jackson meets Stiff Little Fingers, the song is pure temptation, if far too short at barely a minute length, and only more irresistible through the addition of Philippe Cattafesta’s piano organ.
Through the primal raging of Vasectomy, the song a fury of contagiousness and Frustration with its fertile noise bred roar, Violence only tightened its grip on attention and appetite; the lively hooks and spirited antics of both an inevitable and inescapable persuasion and each challenging that favourite moment choice, while Sugar is a collision of old school punk and rabid hardcore which ears and body had no defence to.
The final pair of Thieves & Liars and Nocturne take the album out as impressively as it came in, the first a multi-flavoured lure of punk and rock. It’s less intensive and ferocious presence compared to predecessors unveils a landscape of melodic and sonic dexterity but with an inherent cynicism and severity of word and emotion which makes you take stock while the final track is another inferno of the bands highly flavoursome and inventive sound with hooks and melodies that take hold of the senses like the strings of a puppeteer.
There is a definite uncompromising breath to the Union Jack sound which aligns a challenge with the temptation sprung but one which punk and noise fans will only relish along with the devilish enterprise which effortlessly escapes the band.
Violence is out now; available @ https://unionjack.bandcamp.com/album/violence
https://www.facebook.com/badska/ http://unionjack.free.fr
Pete RingMaster 27/09/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Catch Up With A UFO follows, launching on a delicious rhythmic incitement from drummer BX which quickly leads to an adrenaline soaked stomp shaped by the guitar of DD and temptingly coloured by the dark shadows of Tama’s bass and the ever persuasive vocals of Pav and co. Navigating its flight through swinging gravitational debris, delinquent twists and turns further equip the inescapable greed casting bait of the song before the album lands at Random City 2099. A fuzzy slab of garage rock nurtured synth punk, the song is a magnetic shimmer of theremin and organ nurtured seduction across jangling guitar and rapacious beats and far too easy to devour to be good for one.
As the ravenously viral rock punk ‘n roll throes of Strike and the post punk embracing devilry of The Jerk infested and seduced ears with unruly dexterity, Total Dump just stretched its landscape of esurient intent and fevered invention. Both tracks are as mercilessly catchy as they are unapologetically invasive, that greater accessibility to the band’s sound in full bloom just as much its acclaimed creative villainy is merciless, and traits just as thrilling within next up Shinny Happy Asshole, a venomously swinging, deviously contagious but inescapably corruptive slice of unscrupulous enterprise.
The second track instantly had attention gripped with its opening rally of beats, a tempting soon fully ablaze as guitars and bass unleashed their lustful exploits. Similarly there is a hungry edge to the vocals which just adds to the captivation. As its grows, the track fuses instinctive ferocity with a Nine Inch Nails-esque tempting, easily twisting from a rousing trespass to a melodic seduction and back as it easily eclipses its predecessor.
The Paris hailing quartet strike first with This Is War, an opener which makes a low key but ear coaxing entrance before its muscle and creative armoury rears up. As the guitar of Nicolas “BnV” Benedetti send out grooved spirals the rhythmic antagonism of drummer Cesar “ZarC” Boishus and bassist Fabien “BouFa” Grunzweig prowls. It is a threat which swiftly unveils the scope of the band’s flavoursome sound, a web of styles and infectious intrusions aligning to Adrian “Kal” Cavalier’s throat raw attack. Quickly a magnetic affair, the track only increases its hold on attention as tribal roars and melodic enterprise collude with primal instincts.
The first of three tantalising instrumentals starts the album off, Riffocephalus Minus a lure of crisp magnetic beats and meaty riffs swiftly bursting into a fiery proposition, though just as quickly that in turn slips into a harmonica led flirtation before evolving once again. It is a sign of things to come, of the unpredictable devilish antics on offer.
Be My Guest follows, a great dark grumble courting its croon before it roars with gusto and power, d’Arbigny’s fine vocals to the fore. His bass is a pulsating throb in its midst, the biting beats of Allard swinging with relish as Pavillon’s guitar weaves a melodic and sonic tapestry, the track as much a seduction as a trespass. With a rousing blues rock lining, the song is a tenacious pleasure quickly matched in enjoyment by the contagious shuffle of Red Coach. Its gentle emotive beginning does not give a clue to the energetic dance to follow, alternative and grunge tinged rock colouring its subsequent magnetic rock ‘n’ roll. Feet and hips were soon involved once it did hit its stride, the song one of many casting persistently nagging hooks.