Word-of-mouth hype is a powerful thing - even more so for a band like Adult DVD. For the last five years, their brand of rave-punk has earned them a reputation as one of the country's most riotous live acts, hypnotising crowds into mania and sweaty circle pits with their sardonic send-up of fringe British life. The band’s appeal lies in the frenzy they whip up in a room, presenting a unique challenge for their debut album: how do you capture that feeling when a crowd gives itself over?
From the opening notes of hi-hat-driven, anti-individualist anthem ‘Do As I Please’, Adult DVD sets a breakneck tempo. The album restlessly darts from the thrashing ‘Coffin Dodger’ to ‘Cold Caller’, pointing both barrels at boomers and telesales representatives with equal parts ire and detached irony. Across its runtime, layers of synth interlock into a dense wall of sound that feels inescapable - it’s hypnotically claustrophobic, trapping the pulse of indie-rock hooks beneath. ‘Cowboy On Aisle Three’ is feverishly maximal, with punchy guitars meeting synth loops for a tale of an existential crisis in a supermarket, lampooning a more personal side of living in a society you don’t quite understand.
‘The Steaks Are High’ splits the album in half, encouraging us to "Flip that b*tch to side two" during a straightforward indie-rock interlude. The second half kicks off with ‘World’s Best Boss’, which drops the tempo slightly into looping monotony. Mimicking the day-to-day boredom of a hated office job, the synths tick, and the drums are metronomic: a rhythmic embodiment of workday clock-watching.
Interestingly, there seem to be thematic sequels to several tracks - ‘All I Need’ feels like the aftermath of the survivalist introduced in the 2024 single ‘Doomsday Prepper’, with a pulsating synth line looping around hi-hats, eventually allowing a sharp Korg line to slice through. The heavily processed repetition of "I’ve got all I need" from frontman Harry Hanson gets more and more desperate - like he’s trying to convince himself - until it explodes. ‘Jesus Christ Supercar’ bounces through interlocking overdriven bass and guitar, listing the excuses people make for not trying things. Lines like "I got into cheese / but then the bad dreams start" provide the other side to the desperation for a hobby in the earlier single ‘Do Something.’
As the second-longest track on the album, the breakbeat-infused techno of ‘Ghillie Suit’ serves as an extended prelude to ‘Real Tree Lee’, echoing the sampled lyric ‘says he was a bad boy in his past’ before erupting into a hard-techno chase. ‘Real Tree Lee’ is unrelentingly frantic from the get-go - distorted synths swirl behind hi-hats as Hanson talks of a character who descends into the far right via conspiracy theories. "Real Tree Lee doesn’t talk to the neighbours / he doesn’t cut the grass or do any favours" ties back to the inherent selfishness of opener ‘Do As I Please’, creating an explicit connection to the ‘me first’ mentality of the radical right.
Adult DVD’s debut is built for mosh pits and sweaty rooms - the songs move with urgency, layering synths until they’re on the precipice of detonation. At just 40 minutes, the album breezes by, immersing the listener in a world of caricatured fringe figures. The vocals sit inside the mix rather than on top of it, offering no escape from their cartoonishly constructed reality of cold callers, conspiracy theorists and supermarket cowboys. Melding LCD Soundsystem with nu rave, the album admittedly has little variety, focusing on frenetic rave-rock that enraptures from opening to close. It culminates with ‘Rolling Face’, an Underworld-adjacent acid-house hurricane that leans further into the club, following someone who doesn’t know when to call it a night. As a closing statement, it suggests a stronger future embrace of electronic influences, with ‘Adult DVD’ offering both an intoxicating encapsulation of their live experience and a middle finger to the side effects of late-stage capitalism.
Keir Shields
Image: ‘Adult DVD’ Official Album Cover