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“Agh! A fresh chop from the large dusty burning murder island: Cold is the Meat to beat. Perth’s finest flesh purveyors have upped their naughty game here across ten tracks of gleefully haughty punk. Hot and Flustered is somehow at once extremely camp and deadly serious. Ashley’s vengeful, elastic rasp smears menses down the screwfaces of vacuous tastemakers, climate change deniers, perennial street perverts, and of course, ZZ top fans. There’s some surprisingly poignant forays into melody (Beach Photography) and a good grip of sudden tempo fuckery to keep us well and truly hooked. Their signature chubby and defiant riffs under snarky bouncing toms formula extends well to the album form, creating a timely reminder that hate and fear are more than reasonable responses to our hell predicament. Let’s take comfort in collective ridicule. When it’s too hot to pogo because the sky is on fire, Cold Meat will let us writhe around in the dirt like the little piggies we are.” Bryony Beynon
Well, after a slew of 7” offerings, Perth’s Cold Meat have finally hit us with a full length record. Much like their last few releases they’ve taken an amped up approach to 70s PUNK but this time round they offer ever so slightly more diversity. Ten tracks clocking in at just over 23 minutes and cut at 45rpm for maximum volume. Get hot and flustered.
Our take: Perth, Australia’s Cold Meat has released a slew of notable cassettes and EPs over the past five years, but Hot and Flustered is their debut full-length. Hitting the perfect middle ground between Good Throb’s anger-drenched skronk and Crass’s more freewheeling tantrums, this one was well worth the wait. As with Good Throb, songs that seem like pure gestalt on the first listen transform, upon subsequent listens, into earworms. Just check that simple, Billy-Childish-via-the-Shitty-Limits riff that drives “Women’s Work,” the anthemic chorus to “Industry Sleaze” (“admit… you’re… shit!”), or the nervous hardcore of “Squirm.” Cold Meat also deftly takes advantage of how their singer can sound exactly like Eve Libertine on longer tracks like “Cinematic Fashion.” The main part of that song is a down-tempo dirge with the ranting lyrics front and center, while the chorus finds the rhythm wrenched into something weirder, bringing in the artiness that was always such a big part of Crass’s identity. Hot and Flustered is everything I want punk to be: angry, challenging, memorable, and above all great fun to listen to.