<p><span><span><em>- Cut & Stitch </em>is the second full length album from British / Austrian punks Petrol Girls. It is a record that will be received with some level of anticipation by punk fans, especially following last year's <em>The Future Is Dark </em>EP.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span><em>Cut & Stitch </em>won't disappoint those fans: it is a powerful and ambitious record. The scope of the album is broad - pummelling intense hardcore mixed with jagged angular riffing, a sense of dynamics learned from emo, dual male / female vocals, spoken word interludes, a poppiness that emerges in tracks like <em>Big Mouth</em>. It even carries a conceptual framework outlined in the liner notes by main songwriter <strong>Ren Aldridge</strong>.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>That concept is alluded to in the title <em>Cut & Stitch </em>- it's about creating, reusing, working with what you have. "<em>Making political change is a constant collective process that never stops</em>" says Aldridge in those liner notes. The titles of the last two records -<em>Talk Of Violence </em>and <em>The Future Is Dark-</em> spoke their own messages. This one sees Petrol Girls in a more positive and constructive mood. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>"<em>This is the sound, it moves across borders / It travels through walls, infects and haunts us... Make your own noise, disseminate</em>” goes opening track <em>The Sound</em>. This is the kind of theme that follows through, until the album ends with <em>Naïve </em>and the lyrics “<em>I’d rather be naïve, dare to move and to create/moved by each encounter, contaminate, collaborate.” </em></span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The title also nods to the classic punk ethic of DIY. <em>Cut & Stitch </em>is an album inspired by punk tradition. You can hear musical elements in it from hardcore, post-punk, riot-grrl and emo. The band consciously situate themselves in that tradition with a sample from <strong>X-Ray Spex</strong>’s classic early punk single <em>Oh Bondage, Up Yours</em>. This talk of tradition, mind you, is not to say it’s a record stuck in the past. It takes that ethic to create something new and relevant to today’s circumstances. As the album introduction ponders, “<em>I think about the power of sound and how we might use it</em>”.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Four decades on from those early punks like X-Ray Spex, <em>Cut & Stitch</em> is proof you can still make punk music with those same basic elements that is ambitious, creative and powerful. Its conceptual ideas are worth uncovering, its music a ferocious and life-affirming racket. <em>Cut & Stitch</em> is a worthy new offering from one of the best punk bands in the world right now.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Andy Paine.</span></span></p>
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