Savages, Silence Yourself, album review In a short, cool bit of film preceding the video for last month's single Shut Up, this hotly tipped, post-punk, London-based four-piece gave us a manifesto that should have sounded laughably pretentious but comes off with exciting credibility in the context of their sound: a cold and tensely controlled fury. "The world used to be silent and now it has too many voices," intones frontwoman Jehnny Beth (real name Camille Berthomier) in her art-house accent. These voices, she explains over moody, slow-motion shots of the band's explosive live gigs, "will divert your attention to what is convenient and forget to tell you about yourself. If you are focused you are harder to reach. If you are distracted you are available. Your head is spinning fast at the end of your spine until you have no face at all. And yet if the world would shut up, even for a while, perhaps we will start hearing the persistent rhythm of an angry young tune and recompose ourselves. While they make no claims to be a wildly original band - they listen to Black Sabbath and they have been described as the all-female Joy Division - what makes them so compelling is their fierce focus. As they play, you can feel their fingers pressing the precision of icy rage into their instruments, their eyes burning liquid nitrogen stares through the crowd. Ayse Hassan's bass is relentless, sleek and springy, as if played by a martial arts heroine. Fay Milton's drums take the kind of pounding that should come with a safeword. Gemma Thompson's guitar technique is all violence and drama: the sudden, jagged thrashes of a shark on the hook. And Jehnny Beth yelps about wanting her "husbands" out of her bed. There is a nagging sense that it's all clever contrivance. The buzz so long before they were signed; the lack of internet gossip; the haircuts. But who cares? The stormy focus they talk about is infectious. I helped a recently divorced friend demolish a wall a few months ago and I wish we'd had Savages playing as we wielded our sledgehammers. I'm sure she'd have worked out some anger and we would have made quick work of that wall. Download this Shut Up