Hexdebt – “Loops”

Melbourne four-piecer Hexdebt drops a jagged jolt of post-punk down on us with the second single from their upcoming album Rule of Four. The track is shot through with the anguished guitar and vocal venom of singer/slinger Agnes Whalan. The rhythm section batters the listener until the glass around one’s resolve cracks under pressure. The song’s a short shout, but effective as hell in its mission to bury the bullshit under a wave of amp fury. Much like their Poison City label-mates, the band has a knack for dipping the targets in an acid bath of sound, stripping those who’d cross them down to the bone and coming back for more. As the band have mentioned elsewhere, the album seeks “the evolution and hopeful deconstruction of archaic systems of power, the monetization of personal pleasure and social capital, autonomy over the self and the painful muffling of oppressed voices and the passing of time.” For anyone on the receiving end of their ire, I feel quite sorry. If any album has the sonic might to achieve these goals, Hexdebt are topping the pile.