EP Review: Kill Your Boyfriend - Disco Kills
Reviewed by Rob Barker
I’ve not heard Kill Your Boyfriend before, so going into this clean other than the knowledge of it being post-punk, I only had a vague idea of what to expect. Post-Punk is one of those genres that has such a wide scope of what can fall into it, it’s always a draw out of a hat as to what area you’re going to find yourself in. Because of this, I went in blind, leaving the EPK (the music industry equivalent of a Read Me file) until after the first listen, so my below review is based solely on my interpretation of what I heard.
Disco Kills kicks off with Ego, what could be considered almost as late 80’s goth wave getting in touch with a slight nu-metal faze. It’s dirty sounding, in a grimy rock club kind of way, and I like it. We move along to Obsession, where synth and vibe that wouldn’t be out of place in a darker reality version of a Frankie Goes To Hollywood track is added in. This is what I imagine action movie directors in the 80’s/early 90’s would score their film to if it was set in the distant future of 2025. I don’t mean that in a disrespectful way, either. You know when you watch those films and think “music doesn’t sound like this, but it’d be cool if it did”; this is that music! That considered, I’m going to be silly now with the rest of the review.
It’s quite early in the film and we’re at a gross goth club full of big angry people. Grace Jones has entered, looking to settle an old score (possibly accompanied by a young Ving Rhames as her bodyguard). She walks up to Glen Shadix playing a sycophantic yes-man to the main bad guy of the scene (but not the main bad guy of the movie), Clancy Brown, and he smarmily leads her to his booth. They sit opposite each-other, and Grace tells Clancy to stop buggering about in some way with her business/affairs/concerns, to which Clancy laughs and says “or you’ll what?”. She boots him under the table – Glen and Ving both go “oooooooh” and pull a face – and Clancy makes it clear he gets the message. Grace Jones leaves the club without another word. Clancy isn’t seen in the movie again, but he’ll later go on to be in The Shawshank Redemption. Everybody has spikey hair and lots of corners on their clothes. Apathy by Kill Your Boyfriend is playing in the background and you look for it in the credits at the end because it’s a fucking bop.
Alleyway scene. Ving has been silently subdued by a team of balaclava-clad bad dudes, and Grace is getting cornered by three guys. Slow mo. Knives are shining and black heavy boots are advancing. First guy throws a punch (slow mo, remember) and it glances Grace. She isn’t down, but she’s off balance. She dodges a chain being swung to her head and manages to just miss it and get one up on the chain-swinger by kicking his legs out. But there’s still two guys left. She uses her smart brain and cat-like reflexes, escaping, barely, with some clever moves involving hopping on top of a trash can and over a chain link fence. She disappears into the night and for some reason the henchmen just amble about in the alleyway being shit. They’re gonna have to tell the boss about this, and he ain’t gonna be happy. Illusion by Kill Your Boyfriend is playing in the background and you look for it in the credits at the end because it’s a fucking bop.
Discretion by Kill Your Boyfriend plays over the next scene, and you look for it in the end credits (because bop). This is a montage where Main Bad Guy is training up his new batch of bad dudes (The Even Badder Dudes) to get Grace. One of The Even Badder Dudes is actually Macho Man Randy Savage, not even trying to not be recognisable. There’s lots of weights and sweat and crashing around. At one point, Macho Man is arm-curling the heads of the former henchmen that failed to get Grace in the alleyway scene; a part of the movie that was sadly cut in the Australian release. They load into a helicopter and head to the final scene, meaning business.
Final showdown. The helicopter flies to the roof of the skyscraper that Grace Jones is stood on, but surprise, she has chainsaws for arms now, making surprisingly short work of the chopper, (and, metaphorically, the EP) sending it crashing from the sky in a blaze of glory. Youth by Kill Your Boyfriend plays. Bop.
Silliness aside, Disco Kills is a really good release from the two-piece, and I genuinely enjoyed listening to it several times over. There’s always somebody willing to wade in and bang on about how something isn’t original because it takes influences from yadda yadda yadda – yes fine whatever, but whilst there are very obvious callbacks and homages to a certain sound going on here (the band reference New Order as an influence in their EPK, and this really comes through strong). Kill Your Boyfriend have carved their name in a wall separate to this, with their own thing going on. There’s a heaviness to this that, whilst isn’t necessarily uncharacteristic of the genre, is noticeable and pleasantly surprising.
The band describe the release as being influenced by the disappointment and disillusionment of youth growing up in club culture, and the search for one’s “true self” during this time. I think that’s a pretty cool perspective to listen to Disco Kills through, and despite me being a bit daft in my earlier descriptions of the EP, this is a six-track that deserves to be listened to and taken seriously. A really fun, dirty sounding, and worthy release.
