STRESS POSITIONS

We live in an era that is perfectly designed for hardcore punk. STRESS POSITIONS can lay claim to being one of the most ferociously livid-sounding bands on the planet right now: a reflection of the fact that there is much to be angry about, but also a necessary quality for any band wanting to blow away those jaded cobwebs. As showcased on last year's merciless "Harsh Reality" full-length, these Windy City militants make punk rock that is built entirely from boiling adrenalin, scorched rubber and broken teeth. STRESS POSITIONS play at lightning speed, with vocalist Stephanie Brooks surfing over the top of the chaos, throat set to a permanent, incandescent screech. Songs often last barely more than a minute, but even the longer tunes feel like sneak attacks. As a result, "Human Zoo" seems to be the ideal platform for the band. A seven-track EP, with three additional remixes, it lasts for 23 gloriously unhinged, punk-as-fuck minutes.

When STRESS POSITIONS take off, they take off with maximum venom. "Sadistic" is a monstrous opener: two minutes of impossibly paced, evil hardcore, with Brooks's piercing roar adding extra layers of urgency. It is absurdly exciting, blastbeats and all. "Fragile" follows and somehow manages to be even more extreme. It lurches, it hammers, it grinds. The title track is next, indicating a stylistic sidestep into harrowing anarcho-punk territory. Infernally catchy despite its brutality, "Human Zoo" borrows obliquely from DEAD KENNEDYS, raging with the same crackpot rock 'n' roll intensity and hurling eerie, angular surf guitar lines into the squall. "Nakba" returns to the all-out war approach, noise rock grotesqueries underpinning another breakneck sprint; the accelerator is floored again for the utterly psychotic "Blood Money", before sinister deathrock riffs are drawn into the melee; and "Salbahe Ako" is turbocharged metal-punk spewed out at multiple, jarring speeds and sealed with another weird, wired guitar solo. The closing "Kaddish" eschews punk rock in favor of a disorientating collage of sampled noise, spiritual chants and disembodied dialogue, like psychedelic ambient propaganda from the heart of humanity.

"Human Zoo" would still be a joy without the three remixes that bring up the rear, but there is something bewitching about the contrast on display. Arriving after all that fire and fury, electronic dismantlings of "Blood Money" and the title track could easily sound like an irrelevant tag-on, but STRESS POSITIONS rabid identity is lovingly protected by both electro-punk oddballs PLANET B and mysterious techno-crat MADE BY HUMAN HANDS. From jolting, industrial hip-hop beats to wildly oscillating, blank-eyed electro grooves, all three snatch elements of the original tracks and repurpose them as part of a new, tech-tormented jigsaw. "Human Zoo" is fiercely original, but mainly just fierce.