It’s been a while since post-punk legends The Membranes released any new material – 22 years, in fact. Front man John Robb’s hardly been resting on his laurels in that time, though, and now he’s got his own record label set up, it seems only right he should release some of his own stuff through it. Record Store Day lends itself to a release like this nifty limited 7”, which is guaranteed to raise the label’s profile (they deal exclusively in limited 7” records), and might even set a new trend for the AAA single.
‘If You Enter The Arena You Must Be Prepared To Deal With The Lions’ is a dense, muscular affair, somewhere between The Jesus Lizard and Rollins Band. Weighty, rhythmically charged and claustrophobic, it packs a mean punch.
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‘B.O.O.T.S.’ is more standard punk issue, a choppy, uptempo rockabilly blast you can mosh to (in fact, it demands it!), while the third of the three A sides ‘Everything’s Brilliant’– and yes, they’re all worthy of being singles in their own right – boasts a chantalong refrain delivered with an authentic (post)punk sneer. Yup, the Membranes are back and as strong as ever.
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