Surviving under capitalism is hard work. It extracts compromise. Constant precarity locks us into routines, inertia dulls our senses. Breaking out requires kinetic energy—commitment to the illogical unknown, to making the sort of disruptive noise that startles even its creators. On their debut album, Covert Contracts, Control Top harness the chaos necessary for transformation.
The album opens with “Type A,” in which the narrator reclaims their agency by declaring autonomy against an inflexible know-it-all. “The thought of chaos worries you/Only your solution will do,” taunts Ali Carter, echoed by an upbeat Tony Molina-esque guitar riff, before screaming plainly “Why don’t you get out/Get out of my way!” The bridge dissolves into noise and then springs back up like a fighter dancing on their heels.
But obstacles to freedom don’t just come from individuals. They also come from alienated labor (“Office Rage”), the smokescreen of information overload (“Covert Contracts”), patriarchy (“Traffic,” “Ego Deaf”), bad-faith communication (“Chain Reaction”), and a litany of other root causes including the nation, ambition, and “the cronies on the left and the right” (“Betrayed”). To reflect this ambient anxiety, Control Top songs are coiled and driving, frantic and cathartic. Carter’s vocals, mixed clear and up front, follow a legacy set by LilliPUT/Kleenex and Ari Up of The Slits—sharp and staccato on verses that build to explosive hooks, and plenty of unexpected details which include yelps and sneers, an actual cough after the line “Trying to speak but I can’t stop coughing,” and moments of open vulnerability on otherwise straightforwardly aggressive tracks. Alex Lichtenauer’s hardcore drumming gives the songs a punk urgency while Al Creedon (Bleeding Rainbow) brings no-wave and noise influences to his guitar work as well as samplers and synth drones.
Covert Contracts was produced by Creedon, who has also worked with Priests and Pouty, and came out (during peak Aries season) on Lichtenauer’s label Get Better Records. Something like a Kill Rock Stars of the Philly scene, the label (“for the queers, by the queers”) has put out vital records by bands such as Disipline, HIRS, Sheer Mag, Empath, and Choked Up. “Everything looks like a commercial /It’s a brand to be controversial,” deadpans Carter on the titular song, concerned with being unwittingly locked into someone else’s scam. But on their own terms, on their own label, there is room to be expansive.
Their supportive band dynamic comes from a place of mutual healing: when Carter brought them onto Control Top, Creedon was feeling uninspired by punk and guitars, and Lichtenauer had quit drums after an abusive situation in a previous band. Control Top created a space for everyone involved to rebuild, and the energy is of a band existing despite the odds. It’s no wonder that, despite the claustrophobic subject matter, Covert Contracts crackles with genuine joy. “What is this/Sense of elation,” sings Carter on “Prism.” “Could it be/Liberation?”
