My Album of the Year 2022
Photo by Bea Dewhurst
Girls In Synthesis are quite simply the most important band of the last 50 of my 60 years on this earth. Of all of the Punk/Post Punk artists I've watched and listened to throughout the decades, GIS are the ultimate and the most intense of all.
Following on from their fabulous debut album of last year ‘Now Here’s An Echo From Your Future’ the band are set to release their eagerly awaited follow up ‘The Rest Is Distraction’ and what a phenomenal album it is too.
Right off the bat we have the opener 'It's All Beginning To Change' a ferocious bass driven song that builds with a pounding drum and electronic backdrop that I've not heard since the early days of Cabaret Voltaire 'Nag, Nag, Nag' or Bauhaus 'Stigmata Martyr' this is a cracker of a track and kicks the album off with a bang.
Barely time to catch my breath and we are into the bands recent single 'Watch With Mother'. My life cornered in a charmless and inhospitable room is being viewed from afar as is the family life that leaves me feeling utterly dispirited and dejected.  Here I am in the head of its subject matter high one minute and screaming the next, I need to get out. Mental Health is a key theme on this album.
Photo by Bea Dewhurst
Up next is 'Total Control' a track I think is going to be one of the new crowd pleasers at their forthcoming live shows, if its included in the set list. The thumping bass from John combined with Nicole's relentless drumming and Jim's screaming guitar and effects are just fantastic. Is this my favourite track on the album? It just might be.
'Swallowed Pill' will leave you breathless, a menacing track that sonically beats you to a pulp as it stamps on your aural senses while 'Screaming' has an intensity in the vocals from John of a desperation to be heard.  He wants you to listen. I have to say despite the fact I shouldn't really compare what this band do to those of my past, but I'm going to and that is,
this track could have been lifted off of any of the first two PIL albums, it's that good. Â
Next up is 'My Husband' with its throbbing bass line, a song that is the second single from the album, and if you thought there was a FALL feel to this then you'd be spot on as it features former Fall member Eleni Poulou on keyboards.
'Cottage Industry' is out and out Girls In Synthesis, a driller killer of a track, "Hate is where the heart is absent, home is where the hate is bred" is this anger and resentment of a home life filled with hatred driven by confinement within four walls? No idea, but I feel the pain.
Track 8 'Not As I Do' pounding and relentless. "And it really doesn't matter what I think anymore". Â
As we reach 'Lacking Bite' and 'Your Prayers Have Changed' I can't help but feel like I've been run through a myriad of emotions and thought processes as I listened to this album.Â
It is tense, nervy, edgy, angst driven and full of despair and leaves me with the feeling that I'm being sonically challenged to consider my life, where it was, how it's progressed and where I am today, far removed from those teenage years where like many young men and women I struggled on that hormonal roller coaster living in my bedroom.
It's got me thinking about who I was, how I viewed the world back then and how I dealt with it, the issues of the day and how they have shaped me into adulthood. Am I still that person now or have I really changed?Â
And that takes us to the final track on the album 'To A Fault' and I guess we are all generous in our own way.
'The Rest Of Distraction' is a much darker, tense and anxious album than that of its predecessor 'Now Here's An Echo From Your Future' and it is absolutely magnificent for it.
This is without doubt going to be my Album of the year for 2022.  There is, quite simply, no better band than Girls In Synthesis right now, and you can fucking quote me on that.
Review and live photo by Gary Hough (Shot From Both Sides Photography)
Photos by Bea Dewhurst
‘My Husband’ watch the video HERE
'Watch With Mother' watch the video HERE
‘The Rest Is Distraction’ comes out on Friday 14th October 2022 via the band’s own label Own It/Cargo Records and is available for pre-order HERE:
Catch the band live at the following dates:
13/10/22 - NORTHAMPTON - Black Prince
14/10/22 - LONDON - The Lexington
15/10/22 - TUNBRIDGE WELLS - Sussex Arms
19/10/22 - BRISTOL - The Louisiana
20/10/22 - MANCHESTER - The Peer Hat
21/10/22 - NOTTINGHAM - Bodega
22/10/22 - BRIGHTON - Green Door Store
09/11/22 - GHENT - Bar Bricolage [w. Cocaine Piss]
10/11/22 - BRUSSELS - Magasin4
11/11/22 - TOURNAI - Water Moulin
12/11/22 - SIEGEN - Veb Siegen
13/11/22 - HAMBURG - Westwerk
14/11/22 - COPENHAGEN - Rahuset
15/11/22 - ODENSE - Posten
16/11/22 - BERLIN - Urban Spree
17/11/22 - FRIEBURG - Slow Club
18/11/22 - WURZBURG - Cafe Cairo
19/11/22 - NUREMBERG - Desi
20/11/22 - UTRECHT - Db's
07/12/22 - GLASGOW - The Flying Duck
08/12/22 - NEWCASTLE - Zerox
09/12/22 - HULL - The Adelphi
10/12/22 - BIRMINGHAM - Dark Horse
Girls In Synthesis are:
John – Vocals/Bass
Jim – Vocals/Guitar
Nicole - Drums
Find Girls In Synthesis online at:
WEBSITE
FACEBOOK
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER