In the hierarchy of punk, it’s one thing to play punk music, it’s another to dress punk, and it’s entirely another to have surely the best sounding band name in punk. Yet ‘The Band for Disease Control and Prevention’ have, and do, all three and they do it well.

The Gateshead 5 piece alt-Punk act’s second album is based on a sort of Pistols-driven post punk sound set against the (almost) spoken word delivery by Marcia Mackman.  It’s a combination which works well resulting in a sound which re-creates the most interesting elements of both the Buzzcocks and Transvision Vamp.

Standout tracks ‘Caution Anxiety Attack’ and ‘A kill in the morning’ are direct and showcase the bands musical ability, with Antony Bircham’s guitar in particular standing out as the driving force of the band.  Across the album Mackman’s delivery is strong, focused and empowered, with an almost Patti Smith style delivery usually focused on terrifying the listener; ‘if you think you’ll get an easy life then forget about me’.

If there was one criticism it would be in the production of ‘Heavy Stone’ which places the sound of the band low in the final mix.  It’s a real shame as you can almost hear the band playing against a wall of sound similar to early Manic’s.  A little more volume and it would have been explosive.  But punk’s not always about the end result, it’s about the attitude, and we certainly get that across this album.