No one’s expecting them to come back with another Beaver Patrol, but it’s not unreasonable to wonder what the point of a PWEI comeback is 17 years after the zeitgeist-chasers’ last album, and with only one original member, Graham Crabb.
Now joined by Pitchshifter drummer Jason Bowld and Grebo also-ran Mary Byker, any fears that New Noise… is going to be a washed-up parp of disillusion from men stranded far past their prime aren’t going to be alleviated by the opening track proper, Chaos & Mayhem, its listless, snotty vocals recalling Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine.
But New Noise… is the sound of a band rousing itself, refitting itself into old skin and finding the joints in perfect working order.
The stop-start fuel injected intro to Nosebleed Turbo TV bursting into a plethora of gloriously dishevelled, dancefloor-igniting beats and pulses and the gauntlet-throwing Oldskool Cool’s insouciant defiance all have the air of a gang throwing two fingers to the world, pissing in the wind and having a ball while they’re at it.
