Pink Punk – Zoo Politics

As Kevin Spacey’s psychotic character John Doe calmly tells afrustrated Brad Pitt in Se7en: “If you want people to listen, you can’tjust tap them on the shoulder anymore. You have to hit them with asledgehammer, and then you’ll notice you’ve got their strictattention.” Taking this concept to the airwaves with a deceptivelycandy floss coated name, Pink Punk is a wolf in sheep’s clothing.

The brain child of former One Minute Silence front man Yap,who is nothing less than the oral equivalent of a severely riledHenry Rollins, an incensed Bob Geldof, and a raving JelloBiafra all backed by Rage Against the Machine playing theirhearts out at the world’s last ever anti capitalist demonstration.

Lashing out with venomous but incredibly literate, witty ragevocalist Yap spits his anti-’just about everything organised’ war crywith razor like precision. With opener Hope he is quick to let thelistener know just where his influences are coming from: “Elvis hasleft the building, well good riddance, I’m in the building, Kant is inthe building, Thoreau is in the building.”

And with such influentialthinkers as his base and source it’s no surprise that a lot of thereferences here would fly over the heads of the bubble gum popworld he is trying to convert, although his lyrics do range fromthe down right brutal (“the state rapes children, you do know thatdon’t you? It rips them out of natures cradle and crushes them. Pressa button, bomb a nation, abomination,”) to the downrightsublime (“Kylie, move your plastic ass, you’re blocking out thegenocide!”).

For a man who has been known to halt his previous bands’performances mid-set to unleash his politically fuelled rants over theinjustice and inequality on our planet, it seems this spoken word/rapoutfit suits his needs down to the ground. While there are some lessthan inspirational backing tracks here, the majority of the music,though a world away from the funk metal thrashings of One MinuteSilence, is diverse and punchy. America could easily be a earlyProdigy B-side, while Yapolitical will bore its way infectiously intoyour skull.

Although his obviously anti-capitalistic rants are relentless (“Weare all now one of two sides, demarcated along dollar lines,”) andunyielding in their hatred of all that is American culture, there is ablack humour here that will catch you off guard, and leave you institches: “Shiny shiny, happy people, bleed for me at least, or can Inot compete with Ozzy’s monkey children.”

If you thought Bono and Bob Geldolf had supplied enough Irishsocial action politick to keep the world on its toes, you are in for avery rude awakening akin to napalm being poured into your ear drums.Forget glossy charity concerts where pop’s greatest icons showcasetheir (lack of?) talent in the name of ‘raising awareness’ on globalissues, Zoo Politics is here to keep you awake at night, squirming inunease until you realise that you can’t ignore reality.