The City is The Desert (In Disguise): Balls to the wall!

You can't help but admire the balls of The City is the Desert. It's one thing for Radiohead to stick an album up on the Interwebs for download 'by donation' – it hardly matters to them if people stiff them and don't pay. But for a virtually unknown band to do the same takes a serious amount of guts and integrity.

The City is the Desert (In Disguise) was self-recorded and is now being self-released. It's an interesting mix-match of genres, which makes it rather disjointed and downright weird (in a nzima way). There are definitely tracks I skipped over after a minute or so of deliberation. There are also tracks that hit my sweet spot dead centre.

The awesome thing about this album, is that there's something to appeal to everyone. At least everyone with taste. If your favourite artist is Lady Gaga, you'll probably be disappointed. But you don't have to download the whole thing. Listen through it, download what you like and make a donation accordingly. But make a donation. Bands like this, that veer from the norm and stand behind their principles, need our support.

My personal favourites are WinterCone (which reminds me of Nancy Boy era Placebo) and The Compass Factory (an energetic 'rip it up' type choon). There are plenty of other interesting moments, ranging from spacey electro weirdness to balls out nihilistic roars.

Check it out at http://bribe.desertdisguise.com/album/in-disguise.