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Muscle is a Baltimore-based hardcore trio making sharp, anxious, deeply physical music. Their Bandcamp bio calls them the "ABBA of no wave” — a joke, but also somehow pretty accurate.
The rhythm section (Quintin Gibeau on bass, Adam Farkas on drums) is heavy, tight, unexpectedly danceable, and constantly on the verge of a left field turn. You might be surprised to learn there's no guitarist after hearing their recordings. Madison Coan’s vocals do a lot of the melodic work, layering anxious hooks with gut-punch screams and lyrics that are dark, weird, funny, and honestly very hard to shake.
Muscle sits comfortably alongside more conventional punk and hardcore acts, but pushes sonically and conceptually into more unstable territory. Their songs are built for screaming and convulsing. Listening to Muscle is an intense, cathartic, good-ass time. 11 songs in 22 minutes, on transparent gold-cloudy vinyl.