After two mini LPs and one single, Frustration finally released their debut album last year on Born Bad Records, France on LP and CD. Formed from Parisian bands Operation S, Anteenagers MC, and Warum Joe, Frustration have been one of Paris' most eagerly anticipated new bands, and have quickly gained an international audience as one of the most well known bands in the underground rock scene, carving out a path of their own around disputed genre borderlines.

That success is owed to their straightforward rock and roll ethic and practical application of a little modern technology and excellent live shows to match. Gritty, guitars gnash and clash along to punchy bass, rhythmic synth leads tweaked and twisted until they scream, and stiff lipped vocals with a discreet European accent. If the Phantom Limbs (or The Screamers if you're chained to anachronism) joined Warsaw and Crisis on stage it would sound a lot like this. Something they themselves profess to, and they've got it pretty much right on the dot.

Opening with 'We Have Some...' they whip into motion straight away with a catchy ryththm and something singalongy while the keyboard rains down like one of those alien death-ray buttons you used to be able to buy in the 99cent store. 'Shake Me' is one of the best tracks with their signature guitar clang and unnerving keyboard bridges, that sound a bit like old school horror suspense film scores. 'No Trouble' with its anthemic chorus hits the new wave chord, while 'Too Many Questions' plays good-cop, bad-cop going from slow key driven sequences to full blasts of bas and guitar as if channeling a single dose of a Big Black sound avalanche. 

It's a flavor of postpunk with all the right rough-edges for a modern and aggressive era in music, the antithesis for a milk-fed Editors crowd looking for another foppy Joy Division surrogate. Frustration is one of the most exciting bands on the map when it comes to the cutting edge of modern punk rock'n'roll.