紅髮少年殺人事件* isn't a paint-by-numbers Girl homage, at least not anymore, but there is a faint echo of laudation that resonates with the veritable plucky Fukuoka prefecture progenitors of understated youth-rock refractory, lingering like a ghost in the band's sound. But what untangles 紅髮少年殺人事件 from any of their reasonably attributable influences is the extent that they are not overly persuaded by the examples of their senseis- that they're not shackled to precedence or encumbered by the weight of the past in the least- a bursting blossom with no stem whose petals spark at the lips, vents of an inborn flame. On their most recent release,
Brutal Girl Delusion, the Guangzhou-based group seizes on every opportunity to sling-shot around your ears in intersecting, concentric orbits, treating the rhythmic interplay between the members like games of badminton played with live grenades, with the consequential booms of feedback landing like a rain of electrolytes to fuel the generation of their caustic creation. Alternative rock verve and indie-shock spikes of melodic perturbation get pulled and twisted until they're thin enough to fail before being folded over again into themselves, reinforcing their initial promise of tensile strength and fortifying a renewed pledge of potent fury- a moldable but sturdy platform which the band can kick out of shape and scuff back into new and thrilling forms at will. Spry and edgy, heartfelt and anxiously serene,
Brutal Girl Delusion is a cry down the well of youth to see if there is any soul left lurking at the bottom who can answer back with any compelling force of reply.
Little critters, big sound (SmallAnimalsRecords).
*I'm not translating their name b/c every translator I use gives me a different response. From what I can gather it's something like "the murder case of a red-haired child," but what really matters is the music, not what they call themselves.
