Diät: Positive Energy 12"

Diät: Positive Energy 12"


Tags: · 10s · bf16 · Europe · melodic · post-punk · punk · recommended · spo-default · spo-disabled
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2nd pressing on purple vinyl.

The long awaited debut full length has finally arrived. And the wait was well worth it. Diät have worked, worked and reworked these 8 songs until they were perfect. Who is this band you ask? Let us introduce you: "Brought together by a shared enthusiasm for bleak UK punk and a history of playing in hardcore bands, Berlin based DIÄT have created a sound that they have described, perhaps not entirely seriously, as ‘tough new wave’. Fans of Crisis, Killing Joke and The Mob (UK) should be pleased by the band’s unlikely synthesis of depressive drift and cranked, accelerated energy. ‘Positive Energy’ was recorded last Winter while huddled in a practice space overlooking the industrial landscape of frozen East Berlin, the album finds Diät reining in the threads of malignant enthusiasm still peppered throughout their earlier recordings (both 7"s previously released on this fine imprint) to focus on the cynicism and dejectedness that binds them as a band." Packaged in a high quality reverse board jacket with a 12 page lyric booklet only available in this version of the LP. All copies on black vinyl. The download comes with the "Hurricane" video as well.

Our take: Earlier today Rich from Whatever Brains came in the shop while I was listening to this and said something to the effect of "this sounds so post-punk!" I don't know why, but I took a tiny bit of offense to that comment. Maybe it's because I hear so much vapid, sound-alike post-punk that attempts to capture the sound of the post-punk era (like those annoying chorus pedals!) without any of the actual adventurous spirit, but when I do hear a band like Diät that seem to capture some of that spirit I get excited and perhaps a little bit defensive. I suppose it's also because Diät, despite the baritone vocals that do, indeed, recall the Chameleons, sound more punk than anything to me. In particular, I hear lots of the surf-y octave leads and pop songwriting of Rikk Agnew's great, underrated solo LP here. In general, though, it sounds like punk grown up... punk that takes a slightly wider view and begins to incorporate different tempos, textures, and whatnot but is still, fundamentally, punk. In that respect it also reminds me of Total Control (which isn't surprising since Diät's history is somewhat bound up with Total Control and two of the members of Diät are Australian), a band whom they also resemble in the uniform strength and inventiveness of their songwriting. This pretty much blows away their two earlier singles and will, without a doubt, be spending a lot of time on my turntable in the coming months.