< I V I L < I V I < Shunning vocals to make more room for their soaring distortions, Civil Civic rejected the idea of a front man and instead created 'The Box'. Part evil drum machine, part hobo light-show, all road-case, The Box completes the Man-Machine triptych. Mixing jaggedly progressive post-punk guitar, jamming melodic fuzz bass and pummelling drum machine beats, delivered in a no-frills lo-fi-pop package, these Europe-based Australian instrumentalists have tapped their own original sound, emailing tracks back and forward, reconstructing and tweaking the others' contributions, and minimising the possibility of rehearsal room punch-ups. It seems that with their grisly arsenal of melody, noise, tricky bits, thuggy bits and that big horse-syringe full of type-O FUN, they're determined to cement their reputation as "the thinking person's party band", whatever the cost to themselves, music or humanity at large.
