Fugazi - Repeater

Fugazi’s debut album Repeater is loud, angry, but not confrontational. It encourages action. “You are not what you own” screams co-frontman Ian MacKaye demanding a response, and putting you in a position to question how you’ve lived up until now. You ask yourself “Did I really need that new iPhone?”

Okay, in 1990 Apple’s best-selling handset didn’t exist, but Fugazi would be just as effective at influencing the habits of the jaded masses now as they were back then. Momentum was the Washington D.C. band’s weapon, and every musical element was a cog in the machine. The riffs on ‘Merchandise’,‘Repeater’ and ‘Greed’ are proactive in the way they change and warp – it’s the physicality of MacKaye and Guy Picciotto that brings out the nuances in their playing. The compositions embrace spontaneity but never at the expense of the songs’ immediacy. One of the tightest rhythm sections of all time, made of Joe Lally on bass and Brendan Canty on drums, acts as a rudder steering the song and also adds a reggae flare, proving that punk rock can be danceable. What better to pair with this righteous ruckus than an even more righteous message of anti-consumerism?

What made Fugazi wasn’t just the duelling, squealing guitars, the bombastic reggae influences, and defiant and memorable hooks, it was the strict ideology the encompassed everything. With deadly precision Repeater takes down America’s favourite pastimes, tearing apart consumerism, procrastination and drug abuse and makes the Fugazi lifestyle seem a sincerely gratifying alternative.

Words by Daniel Cook