Also members of New York art-punk band BODEGA, guitarist Madison Velding-VanDam and bassist Heather Elle form, with drummer Jason Gates, a dance-punk club project that criticizes the labeling that occurs in society, seeking to seal us each in a can. The band skillfully mixes a nervous, post-punk, artsy style with the techno of the Detroit scene of the ’90s, suggesting a more robotic Gang of Four (“Container”) or an organic Cybotron (“The Motor”), while maintaining a minimalist funk groove à la ESG (“Nuclear Party”). The Wants joins a particular current Anglo-Saxon post-punk that describes its sociological reflections over catchy, angular rhythms, with an omnipresent, oppressive tension recalling Squid, Drahla or N0V3L. The trio also integrates some art-pop sounds, closer to the new wave of Depeche Mode, but which remain less original (“Fear My Society”, “Hydra”). The four exploratory ambient tracks don’t always fit well with the rest of the album and serve more as decorations than hallmarks of resistance, but they do reinforce the robotic aesthetic of the band (“Machine Room”). This rather ambitious first album allows us to glimpse the various exciting possibilities the band could envisage for the future.
