Can I invent a genre? Or more specifically, can I give a name to a genre? Dystopian Punk. There you go.

That’s inspired by the sound I hear from Tāmaki Makaurau trio Repairs, who bring us their new single Mosaic. Written about watching how history seems destined to continuously repeat as we wind back gains made, then rinse and repeat, it’s a very pertinent message for Aotearoa today.

It’s a sonic attack of guitars sitting high in the mix over a frenetic rhythm section holding it together quite well, when one listens hard and focuses on that section of the band. The beat is high tempo, and makes me consider what The Clash would sound like with Philthy Phil Taylor drumming for them. Yeah, that captures it.

The twin vocal is chilling in its different tonal approach. Initially a pleading, breathless and in pain vocal from Martin Phillips sets the scene; followed by a measured, colder, almost disconnected vocal from Nicola Edwards bringing the cold reality of who’s running the ship back to us. Very effective use of the male/female timbres for that dynamic.

There’s anger and angst, vain pleading and unremorseful, banal business-as-usual denial of humanity all stemming from what this track pops into my minds eye, all in under three minutes of rapid-fire. An almost Buzzcocks-esque intro very swiftly turns into this new Dystopian Punk beast, and you’re hurled onto your tail in a Marty McFly opening scene style by the sheer desperate energy these folks are expending in order to get you to see. And yes, you will slowly raise your sunnies and go “whoa” too.

Aside from the intro I’m not going to offer comparisons as term of reference, because this is a really individual sound. You’ll enjoy this if you’re a fan of anything from classic British Punk, through dark electronica to gothic, industrial or speed and psychedelic. It’s glaringly obvious that it’ll go down live, plus there’ll be a pogo/mosh pit in seconds if this hits the speakers in a deep, dark inner city club somewhere underneath those brazen neon lights that promise so much and take more.

It’s on our Spotty Fly and the band’s too. Watch out for new album Disappointing Sequel, coming out 17th April. If you get in early you might get a copy of the translucent blue vinyl LPs. Very cool. Very interesting band. Get into them.