EP Review: Pi$$er – Wretched Life

Pi$$er are a supergroup of sorts, formed from members of bands past and present from the DIY scene including The Domestics, Dis-Tank, Bring The Drones, Anti-Cimex, Wolfhour, The Partisans, Hobopope & The Goldfish Cathedral, Revenge Of The Psychotronic Man, Dissidents, The Shitty Limits, The Filaments, Beat The Red Light and Personnel. Individually the members of the former and current outfits would make an impressive line up for any DIY punk festival, put them together and the result is four tracks pressed on good old fashioned black vinyl that brings something unique to the hardcore scene.

A hint of creepy garage keyboards throws you a curveball before The Lie Is As Good As The Medicine kicks in in all of it’s full tilt hardcore glory, the track initially resembles version 2.0 of GBH‘s early recordings but with the welcome addition of a discordant saxophone that brings an avant garde element to the wall of sound. The bands eponymous track just launches itself at you with unabated fury, there is no respite with the Wretched Life EP as I Won’t Repent gives you the EP’s most accessible moment, it’s still as full on as anything else on the EP but the pace has relented very very slightly, and that’s about as much ground as they’re going to give. The EP’s title track is it’s crowning glory, the saxophone is brought to the fore to accompany an absolutely blistering end to Pi$$er‘s debut release.

Pi$$er‘s sound has it’s origins in the hardcore roots of the UK82 scene, but this is no retrospective release, Wretched Life has an experimental feel that marks it out from the pack, Pi$$er also possess the brutal edge that contemporaries such as The Restarts and Criminal Mind possess but the wailing saxophone adds an extra dimension to an EP that takes no prisoners. The four track 7″ single will be released on Friday 12th July through Kibou Records and TNSrecords in the UK and Sick World Records in New Zealand.

Wretched Life can be pre-ordered via TNSrecords here