Ruined Families - Education

Tracklist:

1. The Future Of Electronic Music

2. Image Of An Image

3. Naked Life

4. Underground Resistance

5. Demolition

6. No Rothko

7. Use Your Hands

8. Wholecar

9. Meta-Anthem

10. We Want Everything

I can't believe it's been over five years since I last reviewed Ruined Families. It was their 2012 untitled 7" that I wrote about and since then they've given us two LPs with "Eduction" being their newest. It was released via Adagio830 last November and it's already onto it's second pressing! The album was mixed in their home city of Athens, Greece and was mastered at the infamous Audiosiege studio. Ruined Families played at Miss The Stars fest in Berlin in May and are playing Fluff Fest in the Czech Republic this Friday. 

I’m not sure if Ruined Families have been taking cues from Refused with the title of “Education” opener, The Future Of Electronic Music. Either way, it’s a short and sharp song to kick off with and the mixture of harshness and melody doesn’t pull any punches. Unsurprisingly there’s a lot of feedback and bass within their music and on Image Of An Image they use it to accentuate their heaviness. At times “Education” grinds and flails onwards yet there are brief glimpses of introspection too. Naked Life doesn’t feature such a glimpse though as their off-kilter violence prevails. They get faster and faster to the point where Underground Resistance enters the fray, knocks you out and exits the ring without an apology, all in just over sixty-seconds. They take things a bit slower on Demolition, which is a song that threatens to explode during it’s first half. The vocals are more tempered and audible, while the instrumentation is more musical and less gung-ho. It shows a different side to them but one that’s clever. The relative calm of Demolition is somewhat shattered by No Rothko, with it’s mix of emoviolence-like passages and glorious punk riffs. It’s a song of many sides and all the better for it. There are many more intricacies within RF’s music than I can aptly describe here, which is why it’s better for you to listen to “Education” for yourself. Use Your Hands covets many of those intricacies with a raging percussive/vocal backdrop and cinematic walls of guitar. The punk influence is back on Wholecar, with it’s garage/goth undertones. I suppose post-punk is more applicable but what’s in a name! Whatever you want to call it, it’s great. The fact that no two songs are the same is key to this album’s energy and intrigue. Meta-Anthem goes through phases of utterly chaotic noise and broken hardcore, all while staying relatively controlled. It’s left to the menace of album closer We Want Everything to leave you aching for more. It’s decidedly brutal and hammers the band’s impact home. “Education” is short in playing time but is rich in emotion and personality. That’s all you should ask for from music really. 

Stream "Education" below:-

You can also buy it digitally, on tape and on vinyl directly from the band above or from Adagio830 here - http://www.bisaufsmesser.com/store/label-releases/adagio830.

Ruined Families - https://www.facebook.com/ruinedfamilies/
Adagio830 - https://www.facebook.com/ADAGIO830/