‘Slumlord in training, ready for some gaining, capital sustaining, empathy waning’ (Monopoly)

Idolatry is a tale of modern England.  Where soaring homelessness and entrenched poverty are viewed as necessary collateral for ‘fiscal discipline’.  Where housing built for working class communities has been sold off to feckless rentiers, where our public services are being hollowed out by speculator greed.  And we’re told to blame those who are already at the bottom of the pile, rather than those who have gorged themselves on these distorted priorities.

For studio purposes, Total Con is the one-person manifestation of Bobby Cole (The Annihilated, Pleasure).  This is his fourth release and second 7-inch, following up last year’s Who Needs The Peace Corps?.  The intent remains absolutely the same – hardcore distilled to its very combative essence as we career through ten tracks in as many minutes.  What emerges is a heartfelt diatribe against a world without compassion and for hardcore to retain its integrity as a refuge from this morass.

The most striking feature is Total Con’s ability to bring a real sense of texture, of light and shade, to a maelstrom that is so unrelentingly frenetic.  Tracks bleed indiscriminately into one another yet never lose a sense of their own identity.  The spiralling frenzy of Patriots.  The stomping oscillations of Mindless Bloodshed.  The bass fuelled bounce of Crust Fund Idiots.  The swaggering groove of Lapdog.  Each hits home with an uncompromising slap to the face.