Cinema Cinema - A Night at the Fights (The Lumiere Label)

Massively produced by Martin Bisi (Swans) for maximum effect, Brooklyn’s Cinema Cinema gleefully deliver a punishing third album that attacks at full throttle.

A Night at the Fights is exactly that: an aural onslaught of blood, sweat and punk rock. Together, guitarist/vocalist Ev Gold and his cousin, drummer Paul Claro, weave complex, syncopated rhythms into coherent, yet manic, songs, creating a sound that draws as much from King Crimson as it does from Fear. Driven by Claro’s thunderous, uncompromising drums, Gold’s heavily treated guitar explodes in a frenzy of chords, leads and noise, providing a perfect backdrop for his voice, which veers between punk screech and dramatic ’80s hard rock operatics. Each song becomes a pummeling round in the ring, the chess dance of two fighters desperately battling it out for their lives through bruises, cuts and scrapes, determined to be the last one standing at any cost.

If punk was truly meant to open possibilities, Cinema Cinema are a perfect example of just how far those explorations can go. Crank A Night at the Fights up to eleven and bask in the glory of bone-crushing musicianship.