Penpushers - Poltergeeks

Refusing to nice it up or court the commercial market, Penpushers reinvent themselves with each release. The addition of Jane Gilbert (last seen on Livesciences' LP) serves to underscore the neo-classical tragedies of Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow and the Yeats-quoting Breathe Deeply, rather than polish them. Lyrics relentlessly infected with futurism are spit back and forth in recognisably Edinburgh flows that have matured far beyond the acrobatics of the 'Our Golden Age of Invention' EPs. The Anticon echoes are less audible - 'Poltergeeks' is the sound of a band re-addressing their lyrical concerns. Lines like: "If it takes a backpack to make a terrorist / Then I'm guilty every day," connect them to the skateboarders' vernacular of the East Coast. The Brain's production is superlative; the scratching restrained but intricate, his dubbed-out approach to guitar riffs and organ signatures refined to the point of slickness. One in the eye for those who fail to see that Scottish hip-hop is in the ascendant - Penpushers are leading the pack. [Bram Gieben]