by Selina Yang (@y_aniles)
Frida Kill’s latest album, KILL! KILL!, draws musical DNA from New York tradition. For these Brooklyn-based feminist punks, the tradition is not only musical. There is the outspoken fearlessness inherent to advocating for oneself amidst urban density. Being outspoken is not a luxury, especially if coming from a marginalized background. Rather, it is a survival tactic. To be angry is to be heard. To be heard is to survive. Urban density may pressurize tensions upon ethnic, gender, and socio-economic divides, but this proximity is also an opportunity for collective change. Under the overarching sound of garage rock and post-punk, Frida Kill takes the album through the abstract no-wave of early Sonic Youth to the funk beat of ESG. Frida Kill rants and chants out personalized narratives, turning frustration from a dead-end sadness into an electric cry for catharsis.
The coursing opener “Camp For Nothing” is as glamorous as one can get for garage rock. Maria Lina Canales‘ sonorous belted vocals soar over distorted backing guitars. Take the two, then mix it together to form a sparkling red gloss. The polished production that starts the record is not to be confused with sounding commercial. Rather, it introduces the quartet’s rhythmic talent as masters of tense pacing. This opener instantly seats the record within the expectations of genre, so that the rest of the record can actively dismantle those expectations. The following song, “Castle Moat,” is an elegant yet chiseling dance, where the introduction’s jagged noise harmony builds kinetic energy. Gaby Canales’ skittering cymbal strikes scald like frying oil.
“Here’s Hoping” is a spotlight of the album, where Stereolab art pop meets Bloc Party indie groove. Silvery layers of elegance weave through sparse distortion, glazed by distant spoken word vocals. That is, until they are folded into each other, crushed like a metallic tin can under a steel toe boot. By the end, the serene vocals and harsh guitar have separated like oil and water, jagged yet cascading. Grittiness has never been so danceable. In contrast, the B-side starts with “Same Difference”. The song is set under dusky alleyway lights. In slow motion movie montage, it does not embolden the past with sickly sweet nostalgia. Rather, it recognizes that problems persist, and that wallowing in the past is not an excuse to settle.
Despite the criticisms of the original ‘90s Riot Grrrl movement’s lack of intersectionality, Frida Kill picks up that guitar to build on a movement, rather than to take steps backwards by erasing that history. The band members draw stories from their own lives, of which explicitly talk about the trans or immigrant experience. In the middle of the record, “Mujeres Con Mangos” is Maria Lina’s (bass, vocals) riled reaction to the arrest of immigrant fruit street vendors – “women who are hustling their asses off to pay their rent in a city that’s already grueling to live in,” Lina said. With the stakes of social inequity are personal safety and economic stability, no time can afford to be lost. KILL! KILL! uses feminist punk music as the framework for reinterpreting personal anger into social – and dance – movement.