Neoplastic play post-punk; let’s call it classic post-punk because for me their sound harks back to the post-punk sound of my youth.
‘Minimal Living’ has a relentless driving rhythm, scything ringing wiry guitar, dense bass and theatrical half-spoken vocals. It brings to mind a denser sounding Bauhaus. I said before that ‘their sound harks back to the post-punk sound of my youth’ and it kinda does and doesn’t. This is because it sounds like I remember it sounding but, in reality, the early post-punk of my youth didn’t sound like this. This sounds denser and fuller. and somehow more polished. This said, you can still do that striding, elbows out dance to it like in the days of old so it’s all good.
To go with its compelling aggressive sound, the song comes with words that are equally as compelling.
“This song was the first we wrote after I moved back to Hull for the first time in eight years,” says singer and bassist, Leo Joslin, “It’s about seeing the city in a different way to when I moved away, and treating it as a new place to discover. I was 18 when I left, the way you interact with your surroundings as a 26-year-old is completely different. I’ve always loved Hull, but it’s in a different way now. Both myself and the city had obviously changed, ‘Minimal Living’ is a reflection on that. The title comes from brutalist architecture which Tom [Green-Morgan, guitarist] is interested in. I thought it held a lot in common with the themes of the lyrics.”
‘Minimal Living’ is a glorious brutal short sharp shock of post-punk that leaves you reeling with words that compel and make you think. It is, in short, a bloody joy.
