by Charlie Pecorella (@oatbituary)
The elusive Fugitive Bubble bursts through the Olympia, WA music scene to wreak havoc on conscientious, hard-core thrill seekers with their glorious re-issue of Delusion through Sorry State Records. If you haven’t been tuned into their terror the first time around, there’s no better time to bite the wire than now. Blazing through ten tracks in less than twenty minutes, Delusion flashes teeth to freedom, and casts off the cuffs of bondage. With a killer line up of Harley Moore on lead vocals and bass, Kurt Stevens on guitar and backing vocals, and Perry Holstein on drums, the trio fashions a hell-raising, unhinged hardcore band with a keen sense of direction.
On the record’s first track, “Cenobite,” Moore barks, “Is it pleasure?” as Stevens and Holstein roar back, “Or is it pain?” Undoubtedly, while listening to this release, supreme pleasure overtakes the hard truths that are consistently wrought in Harley’s howls. Tempos like a hot potato from hell pass off the clashing cymbals from one track to another. As the bass chugs in the scalding “Blue Flame,” Moore frantically warns, “They’re watching you! They’re watching me! In your house and on the street.” Urging all to draw curtains in on what is precious, Fugitive Bubble pounds on the arresting state of surveillance on this highlight track.
Repetitive chants wrap their honest lyrics around listeners’ fingers, a constant reminder that no one is free, until everyone is free. Forever there will be “hand cuffs on your heart, handcuffs on your spirit” until individuals lace up and kick down oppressive forces that keep imperative voices like Fugitive Bubble’s under societal rubble. Parallels between Fugitive Bubble’s “Chicken Head” and Bikini Kill’s “Alien She” lie in exposing an internal enemy, an insidious entity that arrests appearance over substance. This rapid-fire record, hardly pausing for thought, pulses with critical, inverted takes on reality, and our responsibility to it.
What makes this record successful is its hard-headed allegiance to hope and agency. Fugitive Bubble refuses to cede their righteous claims in protest to non-believers quick to cry paranoia. It may take a thousand wrenches thrown into the machine, a magic switch, and medication to chew your way through the belly of the beast – Fugitive Bubble’s re-release leaves you ravenous.