Regardless of their loose affiliation with the California garage rock elite—their first album was produced by Ty Segall, this EP was released on Castle Face, the label part-owned by Thee Oh Sees’ John Dwyer—Ex-Cult is foremost a punk rock band. Throughout their career, they’ve carried traces of SST in their genetic makeup, but their very good sophomore set Midnight Passenger proved they could transcend '80s quasi-hardcore, adding a sense of atmosphere and texture to their approach. After expanding their boundaries on their second album, new EP Cigarette Machine finds Ex-Cult mostly staying in the lane of their debut. Which is not entirely a bad thing. That record was replete with negative energy bursting from the speakers; it was fast and insistent, with a surplus of stinging guitars, half-barked vocals, and gunshot drums. And here, the barn-burning ferocity of the band has yet to be quelled.
Cigarette Machine opener "Clinical Study" is indicative of this fact, a focused and extra-tight punk tune splitting through with a razor-sharp riff and wrapping up in barely two-and-a-half minutes. Tonally abrasive and freewheeling guitar work threatens to send "Meda House Company" completely off the rails, which makes it all the more exciting. But the first five songs having virtually the same tone and approach—quick-fire blasts of aggression with roaring, pedal-heavy guitars—which makes the first 15-plus minutes of the 20-minute release bleed together. The brazen, scraped-skin feel of Midnight Passenger was tempered by quieter, moodier, and more slow-burning set-pieces like "Catholic Entries" and the first minute of "Sid Visions", which succeeded at giving the album a more measured pace and a little variety.
Closer "Your Mask" ends up being the album’s saving grace, not only because it sounds least like the tracks. It’s every bit as menacing as the rest of Ex-Cult’s catalog, but the slightly slower tempo and steady forward charge highlight the band’s swagger, controlling the pace of their songs instead of making them a desperate foot race to the finish line. It's the one example of the band pushing themselves forward and trying something new, a formidable way to complete a good-but-not-entirely-essential EP that mostly blazes its fire trail down a familiar path. What Ex-Cult are capable of and what they do are still on different planes, the former shown only in fleeting glimpses.
