3 out of 5

Label: Skin Graft Records

Produced by: Shinya Ogino (recorded by)

The comparisons to Melt Banana seem somewhat inevitable, given Hyper Gal also hail from Japan, but when the unnervingly repetitive loop blown out drums and synth and sing-song chanting plays out over opener バイブル’s five plus minutes, I tend to think of another Skin Graft Records rabblerouser: Strangulated Beatoffs. While the noise scene has absolutely seen plenty of chaos over the years, the kind of fuck-off energy output by Beatoffs is rare, and Hyper Gal mapping that to a kind of surreptitious poppiness greatly appeals. Even better: I kinda hated how repetitive Pure was on first pass, but on subsequent spins, began to “hear” the track’s nuances, and feel the impact of the percussion changeup at its conclusion…

This isn’t the sole influence (or likely comparison), though. HG swap longer tracks with short, punky bursts of a similar – if thrashier – format, bringing to mind the programmatic blast beats of The Austerity Program, or the keyboard offkey-ness of Lynnfield Pioneers, or, in a briefly skronky excursion into something with actual verses and choruses, early Quasi.

But: being a short record with this round robin of styles, and HG being an admitted art project, nothing quite feels like it sticks, and thus, even if the music is abrasive, it doesn’t necessarily have a lasting quality. The Beatoffs energy returns once – a brilliant excursion into harsh percussion noises – but otherwise Pure is either lacking in identity, or some more enduring qualities beyond an instant gut reaction.