The Setup
Schematic of a Waking Life
1.5
I’ll save you lot the bother of even having to write a lash. This is god awful. Not just one dose of god awful but two, as The Setup and Schematic of Waking Life have joined forces to deliver a wretched split EP of punky, choppy, squealing, and whiny “post hardcore” that’s supposed to be angry and rebellious. But instead of coming across as desperate, emotional, and unhinged both bands are similar to The Fiction (who I recently reviewed here) in that they instead come across as petulant, snot nosed, and hysterical.
Nothing good to say about either of these bands. The Setup rasp and shriek their way through thirteen minutes of utterly forgetful material that holds no positive elements at all. The guitars can’t decide if they are dissonant and chaotic or layered and harmonic, so the end mix is neither, and they collide with an awkward sense of scenester prose and a desire to have some backroom/garage underground rawness. Of course, the non musical hint at shittiness is in the song titles: “Calling All Ninjas", “Does this Record Look Good on Me” and “Post Graduate Barbarian”. Shut the Fuck up and go back home to mamma.
Schematic of a Waking Life are just as bad, with maybe even a worse vocalist, who tries to deliver a Bane-like poetry with his semi clean spoken word vocals, but it sounds contrite and utterly lifeless. I couldn't even get past the first track “Symbolic Gaps”. If you really need to feed your inner emo/punk grab Malady or Fear Before the March of Flames. The shit spurting, roll on the stage crying, musical delivery of The Setup and SOAWL is amongst the worst slop that had graced my ears since I started here and this EP is so fucking bad that this review is ending. Now.
