Palberta “Shitheads In The Ditch” LP / Insert / Free Download
Edition Of 300

Another great album by this Hudson Valley trio (again, first issued as a cassette by OSR), continuing their plunge into the ocean of post-punk readymaids. Palberta’s sound collages together many of the greatest female outfits of the classic Rough Trade era (Kleenex to Raincoats to Modettes and onward) while retaining an after-core blurtage that can momentarily call to mind anyone from Slant 6 to Huggybear. The trio’s own personae shine through as well — giving everything a sputzy Saturday morning cartoon quality.

This requires blending naive-sounding pieces of sound-art inside extremely sophisto form-molds and Palberta manage to pull this trick off seamlessly (whether by design or sheer instinct, we dunno). It allows them to celebrate and subvert genre protocols simultaneously, which is pretty damn great. And the fact that they sound like they’re having a lot of fun while they destroy conventions doesn’t hurt in the least. In fact, it’s what you’d be tempted to call “a total genius move.”

Give Palberta an inch. Right now. They’ll take a whole lot more.

-Byron Coley, 2015