If you’re making darkened techno for the dancefloor, you really have to go for it — you can’t beat around the bush. You’re making sweaty music for the gloomy clubs prowled by Ecstasy dealers, selling last-minute hits at 3 am. You’re making music for the bathroom stall, booger sugar hangouts. This is Sextile’s music in a nutshell, especially on their new sophomore album, yes, please.
The LA duo, made up of dual vocalists Melissa Scaduto and Brady Keehn, call themselves techno punk, and with the blaring robotic bass, sweaty and thundering hardstyle-type vocals, it’s hard not to agree. And even though these songs, lyrically at first glance, feel like placeholders for the electro dance rave groove, digging into them reveals some sort of agenda from Sextile. While there are some straightforward, razor-tipped dancefloor bombs for your crippling endorphins like “Women Respond to Bass,” “Push Ups,” or “Freak Eyes,” Sextile give you songs like “Resist,” probably the hardest track on this thing with its post-hardcore vocals and industrial beat, is about abortion rights. “Penny Rose” is about the failing US education system.
The last track, “Soggy Newports,” steps into a more atmospheric electro vibe with some gorgeous vocals Scaduto about her experience in a New York state-run facility, which kind of (sounds like an asylum, it’s not clear) after a near-death experience. So whatever poison you’re feeling, Sextile is happy to provide it.
