Gentle Grip

Editors’ Notes The dream of 1970s downtown New York—contrasting avant-garde art rock and jittery No Wave skronk—is alive in Brooklyn post-punks Public Practice. On their debut album, Gentle Grip, the quartet (featuring members of indie-pop group Beverly and clangorous punks WALL) reimagines vintage sounds for modern counterculture, delivered through frontwoman Sam York’s disaffected staccato voice. Anti-capitalist anthem “Disposable” is dystopic B-52’s, making a good partner to the anti-materialist, bass-forward banger “Compromised.” “My Head” is unexpectedly groovy, like something straight out of the downtrodden dance music of Liquid Liquid; “Disposable” is punk-funk New Wave. While Public Practice wears their influences on their sleeve, the band has managed to shape those familiar sounds into something entirely new on Gentle Grip: an innovative and tense disco for listeners begging to be challenged.