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In the early 00s, The Australian-American-German trio Chicks On Speed were often called both “electroclash” and “lo-fi”, not entirely unfairly. After all, one of their earliest releases was covering “Warm Leatherette” alongside DJ Hell, in 1998, right at the start of the 80s electronic sleaze revival that became electroclash. And their fiercely DIY approach often privileged expression over expensive studio gloss, to say the very least. They got fed up with the pigeonholes, though, and this 2004 album – made with Spanish rockabilly-punk band The No Heads and Chilean-British techno / abstract electronics wizard Cristian Vogel, was their staggeringly successful attempt to break out of them. It is shot through above all else with free punk spirit of X-Ray Spex and Rip Rig & Panic, but it manages to span to Dada and musique concrete, sleazy Patrick Cowley synth disco, the kind of futurist funk that Vogel put into his Super_Collider project with Jamie Lidell, total noise freakouts, and so much more, all with the Chicks’ chanted and screamed agit-prop keeping a sense of inspirational urgency throughout. It’s sonically exquisite, with more detail than your brain can process, but as immediate as banging a trash can lid. Truly a one of a kind record.