5ingles

OFF!
"Upside Down"

Esben and the Witch

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• Esben and the Witch
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Sweaty throwback twist 'n' shout hardcore that's too busy beating itself into intensive care to give a shit whether its spittle-speckled message is getting across. Similarities between OFF!—who hopefully aren't sponsored by the insect-repellent brand of the same name—and Black Flag are entirely intentional.

Operatic, angelic transcendence; a skein of quaking cymbals, swarming choirs of disembodied doyennes; and prismatic guitar chords that solidify from soft mountain-stream runoff to polished slivers of amethyst, topped off by a friendly comet race along the rings of Jupiter.

So should we take up a collection for a new record-player needle for Aurist, or lobby the Limey noise sculptor for an extended paper-shredder remix of "Art"?

Consider this the ultimate Plunderphonics Olympics iteration of Joy Division's iconic classic, swatches of two dozen cover versions lovingly Frankenbitten into a surprisingly coherent, all-inclusive representation of the original.

Is this the wormhole you'd find yourself in if you stuck a stained-glass window in your pipe and smoked it? You'll never know until you try.