The pugnacious Canadian quartet Women trade in muscular but willfully esoteric post-punk that with its deliberately primitive rhythms, lo-fi production values, and off-handedly irreverent attitude toward its musical influences recalls the work of trendsetting rockers like Savage Republic and Gang of Four. Like the more musically accomplished but like-minded Oneida, Women concentrate on filtering its love of unruly ‘60s pop, with its fuzztone guitar, Farfisa organ, and psychedelic signifiers through the deconstructive lens of post-punk. Their concise ten-song debut is full of oddly skewed but cannily written songs that riff on the detuned menace of The Velvet Underground’s White Light/White Heat, the tricky chord changes of The Zombies’ Odyssey and Oracle and the glowering over beat of garage-bound maniacs like The Monks. If this sounds like a disastrous intersection of influences on paper — fear not, for Women attacks material like the folk-infused “Sag Harbor Bridge” and the percussive “Flashlights” with enough determination to lend a much-needed sense of coherence to this eclectic but inspired debut.
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