What makes good punk rock worth listening to is its ability to redefine what “punk” is supposed to be. Muuy Biien is one of those young bands who simply do not care about rules, expectations, guidelines, or predispositions: they simply want to create angry, intelligent, hyper punk and if you do not like it, then you were not supposed to get it anyway. D.Y.I. is a throbbing, convulsing record that stands on a ledge and dares itself to jump- a highly kinetic explosion of force and sound accented by ambient touches and the most unexpected of harmonies. After the opening ethereal rush of “Cyclothymia I” passes, vocalist Josh Evans leaps on top of the listener with “Human Error”, an violent spasm of a song in which
the words “human error/its inevitable” have never sounded so authentic. With a throbbing bass line, “She Bursts” is a riotous slice of youthful frustration married with a level of control that defies the ages of the members. This could have been a song of blind rage, but it is instead a smartly crafted anthem of gender relations set to a furious and well-defined riff. Each of the members of Muuy Biien took time to release solo ambient projects before reconvening to create D.Y.I. and the three “Cyclothymia” pieces pay homage to that interest without deterring from the overall record-they actually allow for the listener to catch a breath before being doused again with a relentless wave of animated passion of “Virus Evolves” and “Dust”. Clocking in at under one minute each, Muuy Biien say much in a brief amount of time, declaring in the latter that “It doesn’t matter to me/the people say what they think/uneducated and vain”, while a schizophrenic guitar riff swarms the track. The highlight of the record for me is the pummeling title track that precedes the closing splintered piano of “Cyclothymia III”, as Evans orders with bile rising in his throat, “Be a man/do yourself in”; a call to depart this world rather to live by the naïve and empty standards set by others. This is a call for purity rather than self-destruction and is followed by a cacophony of angst-driven liberation. The aforementioned piano that lingers only briefly concludes an exhaustive journey through the staggering progression of a gifted and incredibly exciting band. Get
these kids opening for Night Birds and you’ll have the greatest tour in the world.