Review Summary: Fury in opposition of the Queen
What do you get when you combine the electric bounciness of nu metal, raw anger of punk and flows and political statements of hip hop?
Nova Twins debut
Who Are the Girls? just might be the latest answer to that. Coming off 6 years of existence and touring with SputnikMusic favourites such as
Prophets of Rage, the duo of the vocalist/guitarist Amy Love and bassist/back up vocalist Georgia South collected these ten tracks of “urban punk” to let out their anger with sexism, growing up, and to rock established genre pillars to the ground(and to swell some hips as well).
Opening with
Vortex, the duo spends little time building tension before blasting your ears with heavily effected guitars, which could easily be confused for electronically created beats by untrained ears, not unlike the guitar tricks and licks of Tom Morello. Going on from there,
Nova Twins beat this horse throughout majority of the record, often with slight changes in the recipe.
Bullet is one of the more hip-hop inspired tracks, mixing distorted bass with squeaky synths and samples, and it's where the music is at its very best.
Play Fair is similarly rap-laden, with ultra heavy chorus, which wouldn't be out of place on a
Deftones record with only slight tweaks. Amy's voice full of confidence and attitude does these tracks great favour, never sounding forced or weak, taking strong clues from Zach of
Rage Against the Machine in delivery, especially on tracks like
Devil's Face.
I'm that girl you couldn't get and now you hate me for it
I'm not asking for it
Is it too much for your ego
When I say, "See ya, amigo"?
-Bullet
The anger, even if expressed so well sonically, is most heard in the lyrics. Previously aforementioned
Bullet deals with the anger men take out on women after being rejected, while tracks like
Taxi take on a more rap inspired, painting-a-picture style of
taking over in pink Cadillacs. That's not to say that the record doesn't deal with personal doom and gloom of growing up in this day and age, as showcased on
Not My Day.
Who Are the Girls? showcases a great amount of potential in these two young women. While it gets a little formulaic at places, with the exception of a short, quiet and palate cleansing
Ivory Tower, no track feels substantially worse than other, and given the record's short run time of only 30 minutes, the album is over before you get any chance to get bored of it, and I am incredibly excited for what
Nova Twins have in them to offer next. Essential British punk record for the new decade.
