housewives: ff061116

London-based outfit Housewives' psychic charge -- equal parts brittle rhythmic drive, angular contortions, and monochrome minimalism -- is as punishing in approach as the band are enigmatic in aspect. FF061116 follows their debut Work (released on Hands In The Dark in 2015) and previous tapes and 7" releases (on Faux Discs and Blank Editions). The band shows no sign of compromise whatsoever, being as stark, harsh, and stubbornly inhospitable as the strobe-haunted, feverishly kinetic live shows that have earned them a fearsome reputation. Split into seven excerpts and built on powerful repetition, FF061116 is a mind-melding travail into abstraction and abjection which draws on post-punk, jazz, drone, electronic, and avant-garde tropes to create an unclassifiable assault that feels oddly timeless. Whilst some may be able to detect influences like This Heat (whose Charles Hayward approvingly described their sound as redolent of "a barely controlled anger, hypnotic and building from the simplest elements") or Einstürzende Neubauten, Housewives are carving out their own unique place in the darker quarters of the underground.