ALBUM REVIEW: Enablers – Some Gift

Wrong Speed Records

Released: 02.09.22

Enablers have been doing this stuff for twenty years and seven albums. What ‘it’ is is harder to define: loosely, spoken word over instrumental music. But that ain’t it. That stuff is usually weak AF. The music here – from a supergroup of sorts, if you know – is no mere backdrop.

This stuff rages, guitars collide, it’s post-hardcore, probably, but still fucking hardcore. Even the quieter, more atmospheric tracks are hardcore. You’d listen to it in its own right like a great, GREAT instrumental rock album (just don’t call it post-rock). And then comes Pete Simonelli, to carefully pattern the music with his words, noirish and evocative poems/short stories. There’s an anxiety and a clammy dread and a general late-night despair to much of his words, the band turning those feelings into sounds that hit you in the gut. Enablers don’t fit your genres. Enablers are a genre.