LIP CRITIC — ‘HEX DEALER’

Writer’s Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Lip Critic’s debut album ‘Hex Dealer’ explodes open with the single ‘It's the Magic.’ With its booming, resounding synths, ‘It's the Magic’ is a deep, ominous work that acts in complete defiance of genre categorisation. Its backing vocals are discordant with the main vocal line—they deharmonise instead of harmonising. When combined with the low-pitch grinding instrumentation, it’s an atmospheric lead into the aggressive half-spat vocals. It’s a dark, rattling banger. Vocalist Bret Kaser turns his voice into an instrument just as harsh as the low-pitch synths and pounding drums.

It’s in the second track, ‘Love Will Redeem You’, that Lip Critic manages to hit an entirely different stride. They display a hyper-pop industrial tendency, the lyrics rapid and referential. It’s in this track that you can really tell that they have their roots in the hardcore scene—it sounds like you’re getting smashed over the head with a bin lid, and it’s two minutes long. The screamed vocals that bounce between the ears are a great touch; they work as an incredible bit of physical immersion in the track. Their defiance of categorisation adds to this hypnotically engaging aggression. This is similar to ‘The Heart’, where backing chiptune vocals and frenetic instrumentation snowball together to create an energetic and mad riot.

‘Bork Pelly’, featuring Ghosh and ID.Sus displays an industrial, drum and bass tendency, the high angelic synth line forming a sonic contrast. Ghosh’s verse is spunky and fierce, and ID.Sus’ verse is a pounding on the eardrums. ‘Spirit Bomber’ is equally relentless, its flow reminiscent of Slowthai’s straight-forward delivery. My only issue with ‘Spirit Bomber’ is that the instrumentation is slightly less adventurous than previous songs—maybe I’ve just gotten too used to abstract hyperpop hardcore sounds, but ‘Spirit Bomber’ doesn’t hit me as hard as ‘It’s the Magic’ or ‘The Heart.’

We slow down on ‘Death Lurking’, featuring Izzy da Fonesca, which holds onto some of ‘Spirit Bomber’s straight-forward flow. This section of the album is more monotonous than the previous half—it makes ‘Hex Dealer’ drag in the middle. However, we pick right back up again with ‘Milky Max’, with its cryptic and punchy lyrics that deliver a sense of isolation, fear, and doom. ‘Hex Dealer’ is a very, very good album if you want to feel unsettled, and I often do.

‘Sermon’ is where this fear really comes to the forefront, its cult-leader aestheticism and occult lyrics creating a foggy, sludgy sound. In places, the vocals are ‘Are We the Dead?’ by David Bowie levels of reverb and desperation. I adore the theatricality of ‘Sermon’, combined with the power of its imagery and its ska-like drum-line.

‘I’m Alive’, ‘My Wife And the Goblin’ and ‘In the Wawa (Convinced I Am God)’ are delightfully weird and intense. Their shorter lengths make them merge together slightly, contributing to the feeling of drag from the midway point. The guitar line in ‘In the Wawa (Convinced I Am God)’ is especially good, when combined with the choral, refracted vocals behind the boom of the bass. We end with ‘Toxin Dodger’, a more overtly exciting and upbeat song that plays the album out perfectly.

Although it suffers from a little bit of bloat and a lack of trimming, ‘Hex Dealer’ is an excellent debut album all the same. Its highlights are early, but ‘Sermon’ is fantastic, and ‘In the Wawa (Convinced I am God)’ is reason enough to pull this album over the three star mark into four. Lip Critic is a band to watch. They managed to put a hex on me with this opening album, pulling me back in for the rest of their career. As always with debut artists, I’m very excited to see what they can come up with if their first album is this good.