Worldwide

Back in the late '70s, the Dickies set the punk scene ablaze with their zippy music and destructo-covers of pop/rock icons. The Death Set speed along in their footsteps, scathing through punk/post-punk much like the Dickies cleaved through the '60s. Their debut full-length album, Worldwide, gives a shot of amphetamines to the blank generation, and although the group don't actually cover anything from that era, they don't have time to, they're too busy stomping deliriously over the grave with their own songs. All 18 of them, packed into a set that runs less than 30 minutes. In short order they steamroll over synth pop and its more experimental brethren, demolish the first generation U.K. punk bands and many of their off-spring, take an axe to art-punk, lay waste to the new wave, and ravish the New Romantics. The tracks fly by so fast it's almost impossible to keep up. But that's the fun of this set, for the energy never flags and the joie de vivre never slackens. "Intermission" is obviously Death Set's theme song, a frenetic mix of shout-along vocals and sweeping New Romantic synths. But that's just one of the dozen or so anthems within, others include the digitized delight of "Around the World," the hip-hoppy "Impossible," the hardcore slam of "Day in the Wife," the blistering pop of "Moving Forward," and the punky punch of "Heard It All Before." You'll find your own favorites soon enough for amazingly, considering the inexorable tempo, there's nothing slap or dash about this set, which is as tightly wound as a watch spring. ~ Jo-Ann Greene