THOTCRIME

Prolonged to exposure to THOTCRIME will almost certainly make your brain hurt. A self-proclaimed "multinational cybergrind quartet", their masterplan is fairly self-explanatory. From its confounding title — which takes far too long to type, incidentally — and the gleeful quirkiness of its song titles, to the relentless insanity of the music itself, "D1G1T4L_DR1FT" (I cut/pasted it that time!) is definitely not aimed at either the humorless or anyone with an old-school attention span. But if you like songs that blast through multiple mad ideas within 90 seconds, THOTCRIME may just be your new favorite band.

There is undoubtedly precedent for music of this willfully warped nature, but no one has thrown such disparate ingredients together with this much maniacal verve for some time. Rooted in overdriven electronics, hyperactive grindcore and (as those titles suggest) the shrieking hysteria of screamo, songs like the opening "This Isn't Foundation, Now Give Me Your Skin Please" and "Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria" never linger long enough to lose their jarring impact. THOTCRIME even sound vaguely conventional on occasion: the gloomy electro-rock of "trust://fall" could conceivably pass for a middle-of-the-road alt-rock anthem, were it not for the belligerent clatter of those robotic kick drums. Likewise, closer "I Couldn't End Me, So I'd Like To See You Try" is a big, melodic thing, with no shortage of radio-friendly bluster.

The best moments are often the heaviest and most overtly demented. "4V3R4G3_TU35D4Y.exe" is all spinning-sledgehammer beats and lurching deathcore grooves; "Tweet This!" is like some infernal 100 GECS disco remix, with perky trance synths and autotune galore; "Critical Codependence" goes all-out in the feral grind stakes, before morphing into icy synth-pop; "Central Dogma" is a disjointed slap to the nuts, with THOTCRIME's much-abused drum machines pushed to insane limits. Best of all, "MOTHERFUCKER UNLIMITED" offers a team-up with Kate Davies from PUPIL SLICER. It's a deeply weird meeting of minds: 105 seconds of flailing noise-metal, with evil pop sensibilities and the best industrial metal riffing this side of MINISTRY.

The choice is yours. Either THOTCRIME will thrill you with their maverick musical mischief, or they are going to annoy the piss out of you. "D1G1T4L_DR1FT" strives incredibly hard to achieve both of those things. Hard to argue with, really.