Album Review: Sextile - 'yes, please.'
Sextile blend synth and punk together on their latest record in a way that has never looked – or sounded more fun, creating music that’s impossible not to dance to.
Think Confidence Man an air of punk. That’s Sextile in a nutshell – having recently toured with label mates Molchat Doma, their records arrive designed to get you to groove and dance; upbeat and cheerful. It’s an album that demonstrates what it means to be alive – showing how far you can push yourself and push yourself to the limits.
Including a intro that’s just over one minute, the thirteen track record is firing on all cylinders. Freak Eyes is an early highlight – three tracks in – recalling house parties in New York where tracks were played with the ability to grind conversations to a halt. It’s a telltale sign of a good band that can get you dancing no matter what you’re talking about and Sextile look set to join those bands – the emotion and the energy that’s felt here and the pressure of getting something out there in the world can feel overwhelming at times, allowing for a need to escape. It’s a song that feels designed to get the party started in the best way with a rich; raw bassline and intoxicating techno rhythm – all about living life to the extreme.
The band enlist Jehnny Beth for vocals on Push-Ups, bass that hoovers up the energy around it amped up with synth that feels off the wall addictive and muscular. If the band set up a mission statement of getting the party started they did just that – it’s impossible not to dance to this record no matter where you are. Politics are tackled in a way that feels timely and relevant as well – abortion rights are highlighted in Resist, the band’s protest song – angry and furious – and everything comes to a head in Kids, trance-pop in full flow. Never has synth felt more stylish – and the ability to explore teen angst and growing pains with introspective wordplay really show the bands’ growth since Push – and this time you get Automatic’s Izzy Glaudini on board as well – freeing up Yes Please for a liberating, creative offering.
I like how Penny Rose tackles US education; AI and the influence of future generations. It feels like a statement record – politically in-tune with the worries of the current youth and the dangers that AI poses to the music scene. Wild, heavy and carried by Melissa Scaduto’s vocals – the attention may be on the collaborations here but it’s important to note how distinctive her voice is.
The ability to look inward for personal reflections at the same time as get the crowd moving makes Sextile work so well. It’s part of their charm – the dance upbeat energy of their live performances make them a name to be reckoned with on the live scene – an act impossible not to see live. They dare the audience to think bigger, dance more and at their live shows, having seen them eat up the audience at End of the Road last year, the crowd always obligies. There are shades of The Prodigy on this record and that is no small comparison – it’s rare these days that you’ll see a band just wanting to have fun and that’s what Sextile are capable of doing beneath it all.
Scaduto and Brady Keehn are looking out for the next hit at every turn – drawing influence from bands like Ash Code, The Cold Night and the Agnes Circle – reaching deep into the underground of the genre. It’s full darkwave in the best kind of way.
I’m a big fan of later tracks in the record like Hospital and Soggy Newports, and the album achieves its consistency throughout in style. It’s appropriately archaic – “every day is such a fight”, Hospital’s lyrics call – and that’s the energy that resonates across the entire album. Soggy Newports is a stripped down, vulnerable album closer that brings fans back down to Earth but ends the album on the highest notes possible. The 80s influences are kept consistently brilliant and engaging throughout the record – the techno-influenced vibes make it easy to imagine Sextile blaring their signature sound in the backing track of say, a Michael Mann film during an intense club scene.
Words by Miles Milton-Jefferies
