‘El deseo banal del progreso, glorifica la tecnologia como dios, perseverente camino para erigir un inevitable, inevitable undo infértil’ (Progreso Reccionario) / ‘The banal desire for progress glorifies technology as a god, a persistent path to erecting an inevitable, inevitable barren world’ (Reactionary Progress)

The bold artwork to Choque Asimétrico (Asymmetric Shock) incisively primes expectations.  A security wall morphs into stomping paramilitaries as the brutal learnings from wars of occupation boomerang home to militarise civic life.   They march past emaciated, faceless figures cowering in the aftermath of their overseas violence and in the shadow of the wall itself.  Beyond this wall, the architecture of security and capital soars through the polluted skies.  A world reborn as prison, a fortress to sow fear, and to harvest profit.

Bogotá’s Unidad Ideológica (Ideological Unity) return with their second album, and follow-up to their 2021 self-titled debut.  Featuring as they do members of Alambrada and Muro, the sheer unbridled venom of their metallic d-beat onslaught comes as little surprise.  This pedigree also ensures that, amid the unyielding velocity, their raw barrage is a deftly dynamic and astutely layered one.

From the surging groove of Huir (Flee) to the thrashing barbarity of Colapso Esotérico (Esoteric Collapse), and from the discordantly squalling melodicism of Posthumanista (Posthumanist) to the urgent rhythmic fury of the closer Prisión [Sur] Global (Prison [South] Global), the intensity is as unforgiving as it is richly detailed.  Meanwhile, the desperation-soaked vocals pay witness to the relentless quelling of the human spirit at the hands of surveillance capitalism, techno-feudalism, and the remorseless exploitation of the marginalised.