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London’s singular maelstrom, Violin, has arrived at ILRHQ with four deadly soundblasts to loosen the grip on your perceived reality. Violin’s sole proprietor, Lindsay Corstophine, exposes and decimates a “cruel fantastic world” of willful ignorance, seething metropolitan dread, paranoid visions and fatal submissions. All this at mostly one two violence tempo in the perfect amount of hardcore time, spanning less than 6 minutes total.
Our take: Iron Lung Records brings us the second record from this London hardcore project—their first was on La Vida Es Un Mus—and the label is a fitting home for Violin’s slightly left-of-center hardcore. Honestly, though, this record dials back the quirkier elements we heard on Violin’s previous record, leaning more toward straightforward hardcore. Violin’s particular take is burly and propulsive, reminding me of early 80s Boston bands like Negative FX and SS Decontrol. I love the term “violence tempo” that Iron Lung uses in their description, and it’s apt for the relentless propulsion on display here. We get a taste of the weird stuff, though, with some heavily effected guitar emphasizing the quirky lead riff in “Subservient” as well as a chaotic section where noisy synth squalls swoop into the mix. If there’s such a thing as thinking person’s dumb hardcore, this is it.