With debut full-length NON-FICTION, N0V3L lays out a studious tribute to classic post-punk rife with anti-capitalist aggravations. It’s delightfully gloomy and angular, spitting out twitchy dance tracks like a well-oiled machine.

NON-FICTION proves itself more than capable of the post-punk oeuvre from the beginning of opening track “UNTOUCHABLE,” which mimes the riff from Gang of Four’s “Not Great Man.” The calling cards are all present and in pristine form: dry and mechanic drumming, punk-funk bass, and sharp jabs of icy guitar. N0V3L uses that foundation to chronicle the woes of political division (“EN MASSE”), the opioid crisis (“PUSHERS”), gentrification (“APATH”), and more.

There is, of course, more than a little irony to a band bemoaning conformity and reliance on the existent systems over music that sticks rigidly to a stylistic form developed roughly four decades prior. Vocalist/guitarist Jon Varley’s lyrics don’t yet reach a forward-looking or empowering point and instead tend to cycle, fairly persuasively, through the wrongs of the day. But, for that reason, N0V3L’s musical aesthetic works well as it applies the militant stiffness and uncertain jittering of post-punk to an updated array of contemporary complaints that echo the socially-motivated outlook of those seminal innovators of the genre.

Though the Vancouver-based band centers around Varley, the lineup remains blurry and, like associated group Crack Cloud, prefers to label itself a collective. Sonically, N0V3L manages to portray a stark minimalism despite its broader membership. The musicians favor the tight and efficient playing typically associated with post-punk, leaving space for more creative incorporations of synth and saxophone that really let the band shine.

“STRANGER” reaches new peaks with saxophone encouraging its melodies to more powerful territory. “FALLING IN LINE” kicks off with a sprightly guitar line that plays against a drawling horn in the song’s slowed down choruses. Closing track “NOTICE OF FORECLOSURE,” which documents the band’s own displacement from their once-shared-but-now-demolished Vancouver home, employs the saxophone as backing for its sedated dirge.

N0V3L does make some modern updates to the post-punk sound. Though the songs have a dry, saturated tone thanks to a Tascam 388 tape recorder—a state of the art device in the ’80s that’s been put to artistic use in more recent years by everyone from Parquet Courts to The Black Keys—they also sparkle. The guitars in particular shimmer throughout calling to mind contemporary post-punk revivalists Omni. The bass has also rounded out from the thinner recordings of the late ’70s and early ’80s. Check standout track “GROUP DISEASE” for one of the album’s most swaggering bass lines.

What’s most impressive about N0V3L’s first full-length is the overwhelming consistency. If you’re engaged after the first track, you’ll likely find the rest of the set similarly appealing. On NON-FICTION, N0V3L locks into their sound and doesn’t lose the groove.

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By Cameron Carr