Bringing together members of Heavy Temple, Morgul Blade and intensive noise-makers Narcos Family Band, Straight Red is a US-based hardcore punk outfit who are obsessed with British OI! punk and football – or as the Yanks call it, “soccerrr”. The mix of influences and talents doesn’t bode very well from the outset. A lot of OI! punk – a fixture during the second wave of punk in the UK – as its name suggests, eschews many of the genre’s better elements in favour of gang based shouting designed to rouse the crowd, and the football theme applies a concept here that further reduces any broader appeal the punky material might have had. Luckily, at just six tracks and just a little shy of fifteen minutes, as irksome as this EP is in places, it’s a musical assault that’s mercifully brief.

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