Adulkt Life, made of Huggy Bear’s Chris Rowley, Male Bonding’s John Arthur Webb and Kevin Hendrick and drummer Sonny Barrett, announce their debut album, ‘Book Of Curses’, on What’s Your Rupture?.
Huggy Bear led the UK’s answer to riot grrrl, inspired by the ‘seismic shock’ of witnessing a Nation Of Ulysses performance together and galvanized by Bikini Kill drummer Tobi Vail’s germinal riot grrrl zine ‘Jigsaw’. The Adulkt Life line up was finalized when Webb enlisted his best friend and longtime collaborator Kevin Hendrick (Middex) on bass.
The cut-and-paste word collages Rowley once shouted in Huggy Bear are as cool and thrilling as ever on ‘Book Of Curses’ - with chiselled noise hooks expertly mixed by Webb and mastered by Total Control’s Mikey Young, fitting the “cold war bubblegum” aesthetic called out in the lyrics - but charged by the high-stakes of adulthood. ‘Taking Hits’ is a rallying cry for those unable to cry. The explosive ‘Stevie K’ is a “mythic hero/ine song” inspired by Nation of Ulysses guitarist Steve Kroner.
Adulkt Life honour these impulses. On ‘Book Of Curses’, punk means never surrendering your creativity or your curiosity.