Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

We live in a time when the rolling of the boulder up a steep, pointed hill in an exercise of futility of attaining balance, is not just foolhardy, but painful to witness. Like Sisyphus we have become obsessed, cursed with achieving the impossible when the fates are against us, and whilst to endeavour is what makes us human, we sometimes must stop and wonder why the boulder we push is forever gaining speed on the way back down.

Endeavour though is what separates the content to be as one with time and those who feel the will, the need to rally against it, to be more than just a rolling stone, and it is in the pleasure of consistently attempting to prove the universe and Time wrong, that we must strive to make sense of confusion and produce art that reflects the struggle that mirrors those perhaps who sought refuge in capturing the moment during other periods when humanity was threatened, not just by pestilence and plague, by boredom and by self-monotony.

We are at our most vulnerable when we lose sight of the battle and the choice of losing passion, when we are left to think what could have been. However, if utilised properly, vulnerability can also urge us on to create something that puts an obstacle in the way of the unbalanced boulder, that stops us from the repeated effort of existence and brings the new and exciting into the open.

It is in that vulnerability and hope for the continuance that Endless Idiot have found a way to solve the conundrum of the unbalanced boulder, rather than struggle to maintain the illusion of balance, the easiest answer is to blow up the boulder, and then place a piece of the remains on the peak and watch it become the new attraction, the pleasure of others realising that the struggle doesn’t have to weigh you down, but can be adapted so that you come out the winner.

The seven-song strong album, Sisyphus, is a reflection of that struggle made purposeful, and in tracks such as Photographs, Squeal Piggy Squeal, What The Machines Make and the finale of Up, the Punk ethic of no surrender to conformity is revealed once more, the boulder has been smashed to pieces, the top of the hill has been adorned with pleasure, and the objectiveness of the task is presented as complete and boundless.

Full of flavour, demonstrative of what can be achieved when we push past the obstacles in our way, the anathema to tedium, Endless Idiot have released an album of sheer dynamite.

Ian D. Hall