Aussie electro-punks Gerling want it both ways: hardcore's caustic snarl with the insistent thump of disco and house. Fans of dance-punk darlings The Rapture and !!! may consider this opportunistic, but the Sydney trio have crossbred both genres for years.
Their eclectic third LP, "Bad Blood!!!," is the kind that critics describe as either "ambitious" or "unfocused." But for a house party that's losing steam, this is what you crank. "Who's Ya Daddy?" quivers with vocoder raunchiness, while "Get Activated" sounds like an industrial reworking of The Clash's "Rock the Casbah." Another track, "In the City," even sounds like The Strokes with a horn section, but vocalist Darren Cross says it's more of a Lou Reed/"Transformer" thing. He mocks a heckler on the dark-house throb of "We Got Venom" by shouting "Give us something we can dance to, you stinkin' punks!" Well, they asked for it.
