These Are Powers

All Aboard Future

[4/5]

There is nothing easy about These Are Powers’ All Aboard Future. The record is nasty, full of half-measure beeps-and-clicks and peppered with the caustic squeal of frontwoman Anna Barie. On “Life Of Birds,” her detachment is reminiscent of some late-’70s Siouxsie Sioux, but what is most interesting is that Barie never goes for the hooks. In fact, nobody does. The band match her solemn tempo as bassist Pat Noecker and drummer Bill Salas pay equal homage to Public Image Ltd.’s post-punk yawn and Throbbing Gristle’s pre-industrial thump. The end result is shrill, monotonous and aching. All this sounds awful, but All Aboard Future-for all its dystopian doom-somehow shakes out as the first truly modern punk record of 2009. Nobody said the future would be pretty. (DEAD OCEANS; deadoceans.com) David T. Lewis