3 out of 5

Label: Self-released

Produced by: Mike Wisti

Herky-jerk trio Gay Beast commit 10 tracks of interesting keys / guitar / drums smash-ups on ‘Disrobics.’  When the compositions congeal into songs, the energy is palpable, like a no-wave Ex-Models.  However, things more often veer toward start-stop hiccups of noise which, while not out of place or by any means unlistenable, are so fractured as to become indiscernible from other such moments on the album.  Because the divide between these two styles is somewhat scattershot, it’s tough for the disc to settle into a groove lasting longer than a single song.  But – at less than half an hour, this certainly isn’t a killer, and the moments that shine are super infectious, such as opening blast ‘What You Want’ and schizo instrumental ‘3 Pairs of Eyes.’  Despite the oddball sound, though, it’s worth noting that the tracks that sidle toward being a bit more straight-forward verse-chorus-verse punk – like ‘I.D. Politics’ – are very strong, and suggest that maybe the group shouldn’t worry so much about being strange.

I’d also like to call out ‘Mama, Wrap My Coffin…’ as employing a technique I sort of hate: mastering things excessively loud – louder than the rest of the disc – or perhaps just choosing a particular effect that’s in a particularly painful aural range – such that I have to either turn the volume down for one section of a song or even take my headphones out while it plays.  It’s obnoxious.  Which is maybe the winky forte of groups in this scene, to be creatively obnoxious, but the rest of the album seems to be attempts at music and not ear-violations, so…  Yeah.  I’m not knocking the track on the whole, but the experience definitely factors into the lack of flow.