September 1 2008
Rabbit Junk – This Life is Where You Get F__cked
With each release, Rabbit Junk carves deeper into a unique, self-created musical niche. This Life is Where You Get F__cked is a triptych record: three sections, three songs per section, three “transmissions” announcing the transition to a new sonic cycle. The first section, “The Struggle,” will probably sound the most familiar to long-time Rabbit Junk fans; it showcases the project’s upbeat, punked-out digital hardcore style with big beats, thrashing guitars, electronics, and dual male-and-female vocals that give a nod to Alec Empire and Hanin Elias. The next section, “Ghetto Blasphemer,” attempts a fusion that shouldn’t work, but inexplicably does. Marrying gangsta hip-hop beats, synth lines, and record scratches to black metal-infected guitars and throat-shredding vocals sounds like the recipe for a car crash of epic proportions, but Rabbit Junk not only makes it work, but effectively creates a new genre out of the opposite ends of the extreme music spectrum. The final section, “This death is where you get life,” returns a bit to the sound of the first section, but amps up the melody and drops in dollops of electroclash for good measure. This is truly innovative music, and easily the best record I’ve ever heard about bicycling your way to freedom.
