EP Review: Idle State

Prosa are a three-piece eruption of progressive punk, based between Tāmaki Makaurau/Auckland and Berlin. The name is derived from the Latin word for straightforward or direct, and it sums them up aptly, as this quote from their bio demonstrates, “Mixing influences from post-punk and post-hardcore to form their own authentic style of modern punk with a queer twist”, a nicely succinct statement of intent, swift and to the point. Here I’m reviewing Idle State, their barnstorming debut EP.

Track one is Decline. It’s fast, raucous, and full of piss & vinegar. Bassist Elle Purcell has a tone like a coke-binged rhino attacking a tank. Flo Bell’s guitar playing has a fantastically frantic feel to it, soundly rounded out by the powerfully driven drums of Melanie drummer Joe Gasparich (who played on the recording, the search for a permanent drummer ended with Georgia Holden). There’s an explosion of youthful joy to this high-octane banger, and it has a right belter of a mid-section too. This band has pulled me in straight away, love it.

Ignite is a somewhat heavier offering, Joe bringing the thunder like there’s no tomorrow, Flo’s guitar screams feedback, Elle announces the bass’s presence with one brash bash, before it breaks furiously loose of its chain. A track full of snot and snarl, it grabs your throat in its slavering fangs and doesn’t let up for a second. It’s becoming more and more obvious that this band has the ability to create more hooks than the Spare Appendages cupboard of Peter Pan’s nemesis.

Appease is a big, dark, brooding beast of a song, the slightly slower pace contributing to the depth and breadth of the mood, this song is positively bombastic in its delivery. Great vocal harmonies in the chorus, to boot. The dynamic builds towards the end, becoming a pummeling force to be reckoned with. Careful, though… it will earworm its way into sticking in your head for days. Next up is Suffice, this is giving me serious Refused vibes in its intro, and those vibes don’t exactly disappear when the song really kicks in, angular and aggressive with utterly top-shelf musicianship readily on display. I like Flo’s vocal melodies too; they come with a strong sense of how a melody should sit over its foundation. This is by far the longest track of the EP, at 4’15” it’s over a minute longer than any of the other tracks, with a noticeable Prog leaning in its construction.

Disconnected has an intro that has a lot more going on melodically on guitar, compared to the other four tracks. In fact, especially when looking at the EP as a whole, I’d describe this as a guitar-centric track, which is never a bad thing in my book. I always appreciate when a band can have songs that are stylistically different, but still express that band’s overall unique sound. In the moments where the guitar isn’t at the forefront, this song has the most full-noise vocal delivery, too. A wild roaring slab of punk performed within an inch of its life, a right royal ripsnorter of a track that’s perfectly apt for bringing Idle State to a much-too-early close.

If you’re a big fan of slickly produced homogenized pop punk, this probably isn’t for you. If your tastes lean more towards the “sounds like it’s threatening you with a broken bottle”, you’d do well to give this EP a nudge or twelve.