DITZ - Never Exhale

A great crop of bands fusing post-punk and noise rock have materialised over the last couple of years, with the likes of Model/Actriz, Mandy, Indiana, Gilla Band and many others crafting moody, intense and often downright sexy noise-punk that pulsates with abrasive textures and exhilarating rhythms. DITZ are equally one of the finest UK bands to fuse these two welcome bedfellows, as shown on second album ‘Never Exhale’; a robust, tense and thrilling ten songs atop which the Brighton five-piece overlay some relentlessly anxious and sometimes hostile atmospherics. It makes for a gripping fusion. The best tracks masterfully build in tension, with the pursuit frequently more satisfying than the kill itself. ‘18 Wheeler’’s bass-led opening will put hairs on the back of your neck, as do the fingernails-on-a-chalkboard guitars that open ‘Senor Siniestro’. The only minor flaw, though, is that once or twice, DITZ avoid going fully all-out: on the fascinating post-rock closer ‘Britney’, when its big release finally arrives, it arrives in the form of a groovy stoner rock riff, rather than the dense, bludgeoning slice of nastiness the track deserves. Minor quibbles aside, ‘Never Exhale’ is a gripping exercise in textured menace.