LOW LIFE - Dogging

Dogging crawled into the world desperately and painfully. Originally slated for release on Brisbanes singular Negative Guest List Records in 2012, the labels owner sadly passed away before it got there. It eventually emerged two years later as a split between two labels from the bands home turf of Sydney, Disinfect Records and R.I.P. Society. Its fitting that the latter had reissued Venom P. Stingers Dugald McKenzie-era material the year prior -- arguably the only other Australian band that compares to the tough, shit-kicking intensity found on Dogging. Comprised of Mitch Tolman, Cristian OSullivan, and Greg Alfaro at this point (the current 2017 line-up includes Dizzy from Oily Boys), the reckless ferocity and defeatists humor is pointedly nihilistic. Its not kitsch nihilism either, its the kind that enlivens. Indexing happiness, fear, lust, grief, and sorrow, the wry indulgences outlined in Tolmans coded and scheming lyrics amount to white-knuckle sincerity. Its disarming, but its blunted by a weighty smirk. If all this werent delivered through a sardonic curled lip, the violence at the edge of it all would perhaps come off a little less real. Theres a bitterly angry confrontation with the contemporary Australian psyche once you enter Low Lifes estate. Thugged-out and at pace, theres a genuine rush to Dogging. The mindless logic of harder and faster" could never get you to where they were at this point. Even at the marginally calmer moments, the guitars glance you like a headache revealing just how bad it is. Theres no respite, but on the whole, its a very functional arrangement between the three of them. Each song is belted out with a short, sharp fit, with some synthesizers occasionally glistening out at the edges. The restraint is all the more fierce as it amplifies everything thats fucked about them. Low Life pull you through it all on all their terms, and that impact feels as untimely and excessive now as it did then." - Alter.