Dirty Chinese Thieves

In a genre gone horribly impotent, it's relieving to know there's a band like Dirty Chinese Thieves keeping punk rock hard and fast. Six criminally short songs bordering on punk rock'n'roll and culminating in a whopping 12 minutes of loose fury, Uber Alles casts aside all pretension in favour of ensuring that tracks such as "White Gloves," "Hate Crimes" and "Termination List" run like a streamlined hot rod in danger of crashing into the median. Surprisingly, the band manage to keep it straight, delivering buoyant bouts of chant-a-long, three chord blasts. Pulling from the brevity of early Black Flag, the twisted humour of Turbonegro and the effortlessness of Descendents, Uber Alles is as unusual as it is inspiring.