[di: unru:] – Misophonia LP

Misophonia, the 2019 offering from [di: unru:], the German-Finnish trio reshapes the outer edges of post-punk from their Helsinki hideout. It’s an extraction of everything that made the early-to-mid eighties post-punk underground so essential, rewired through the synthwave circuitry, and conducted into a comprehensive collection of songs that pays homage to these longevious styles with force and grace. Misophonia dares you to feel the music crafted by very clever musicians. It enters with elegance, coated in synth-laden ambience and glacial textures, only to sucker-punch you with emotional closeness. This is no detached retro project peddling black-and-white aesthetic minimalism for the algorithm’s sake. No, [di: unru:] is the real thing, three individuals who understand post-punk’s deep contradictions, the haste and discretion, structure and chaos, intellectualism and the raw nerves. Misophonia is where all of these qualities and contradiction collides harmoniously.

From the onset, it’s clear that this isn’t a band finding their footing, but one planting a flag. The vocals are astonishing in their control, power, and texture. There’s a sincerity in the delivery that borders on unnerving. Verses are delivered with a confident and cold-blooded matter-of-fact coolness , while choruses erupt in wild, fragile, full-throated shouts, not for attention, but because it’s the only honest response to what’s being said. It’s theatrical, but not for show. These vocal harmonies operate on that narrow line between discipline and eruption, just like the best post-punk always has. But the voice is only one piece of the machine. The guitars play a parallel narrative. There’s no flash or showboating, no solos, no filler. Just tightly wound, hook-infested phrases that swirl in and out of the mix, covered in grit and heavy reverb, soaked in dissatisfaction. The distortion offers a raw ambiance, never abrasive for the sake of it, but rough enough to scratch through the polished surface of the synths. When those rough guitar lines cut through the melodic wash of electronic texture, you feel the tension that defines this record, and that’s where Misophonia shins in the limelight the most.

It’s easy to romanticize the post-punk era as one of emotional bleakness and art school detachment, but Misophonia sidesteps both of these traps. Instead, it presents something raw and generous simultaneously. That’s largely due to the extraordinary musicianship of the rhythm section. The basslines, often the neglected component in modern interpretations of this genre, are driving in this case. Dense, deep, and curiously melodic, they act as the spinal cord of each composition, wrapping themselves around the beat with confidence. There’s groove, weight, and clarity, anchoring the more spacious moments of interplay between synth and guitar. The drumming is an engine room of the record, and one that deserves praise as well. This drummer sculpts the rhythm. The beats range from tribal and tense to driving and open, with subtle fills and off-kilter breaks almost like jazz in their instinctiveness. The percussion becomes a character of its own, present, shifting, but never overpowering the remainder of the instrumentations. The usage of the synths is one of those elements that elevates Misophonia beyond classic genre exercise. These are not decorative synths sprinkled on top for eighties effect, but are ingrained to the DNA of the record. From cathartic pads that drone like subterranean machines to bright, melodic leads that cut through the darkness, the electronic dimension of Misophonia transforms it from a post-punk revival album into a genuine synthpunk statement. The synths breathe atmosphere into every corner, enhancing the sonic contrast between the organic and the electronic,human and the mechanical, impulsive and the calculated.

And that’s the brilliance of this band. [di: unru:] understands duality, limitation and eruption, melody and abrasion, clarity and obscurity. Their name may suggest disorder, but this record is anything but unhinged. You won’t find filler here. With nine excellent songs, Misophonia wastes nothing. Every composition is a distilled thesis on how to communicate intensity without sacrificing sonic structure. [di: unru:] are not chasing trends or algorithmic viability. It’s a fine piece of sonic artistry made by people with taste, vision, and the technical skill. Misophonia is a reckoning, a confrontation, an exploration of what it means to feel deeply in a chaotic, modern world. Misophonia is lean, smart, emotionally loaded nod to the post-punk forebears and a step toward its future, and you should immediately check it out. Head to Keep It A Secret Records for more information ordering this gem on vinyl.