Team Robespierre Everything’s Perfect

[IMPOSE; 2008]

Styles: synth-driven hardcore
Others: Matt & Kim, Parts and Labor, Faraquet

Team Robespierre are everything you’ve ever wanted in a live band: they’re a keyboard-driven dance party and a sweaty hardcore show rolled into one explosive, hard-hitting sound. They have the power to transform tired punk clichés like moshing, crowd surfing, and frenetic pogo-ing into knee-jerk reactions. For the past few years, with the help of ubiquitous promoter Todd P, the Brooklyn band has been building a cultish following in the out-of-the-way warehouses of New York without so much as a proper album to sell at its merch tables.

But all that is changing with the release of Everything’s Perfect. At only 18 minutes, it seems somewhat inaccurate to call it a full-length, but the 10 songs Team Robespierre pack in are so catchy and danceable, I can’t accuse them of being cheap. The recipe is simple — combine 2 parts ‘80s-style synth + 2 parts hardcore screaming + 1 part righteous political rage and whip until frothy — and the band never diverge from it. Strangely, the formula never gets old. Songs attack such predictable subjects as oil, war, and New York cops, and while the lyrics rarely rise above sloganeering, it’s so fun to shout along with the call-and-response vocals that this never presents much of a problem.

The album is most successful when the synthesizer steals the show, spinning rough-edged punk into complex death disco on songs like “Big Deal,” “Laika,” and “88th Precinct.” But with no clunkers to break the momentum, Everything’s Perfect maintains its adrenaline rush throughout. It remains to be seen whether or not Team Robespierre will be able to grow and innovate beyond the confines of their signature sound, but for now, the formula is working, and it’s about time the rest of the country hears what Brooklyn’s been dancing to.

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